


The Swordsman Chronicles

by TwistedFilms



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: AU REBOOT, F/M, Guild Leader Kirito, Guild politics, Guilds, Improved Player Housing, Lowered Pain Absorption Meter, New Game Mechanics, Player-Killing With Consequences, Reworked Player-Killing, player-killing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:56:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 54,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27616589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwistedFilms/pseuds/TwistedFilms
Summary: Kazuto Kirigaya had always known he was different from the rest of his peers. Having fallen in love with video games at a very young age, he quickly chose to sequester himself to virtual worlds and neglect social contact beyond that of his loving sister, Suguha. Preferring to play solo even in multiplayer games like MMO's, Kazuto was perfectly content with his solitary way of life.However, after finding himself trapped in the world of Aincrad, he realizes that something has to change. A prisoner of the now horrifying death game known as Sword Art Online, the usually introverted young man will have to choose a different path in order to survive.  A path that will ultimately turn him into the leader of the most renowned Guild in the game.AU reboot of the Aincrad Arc, set in a version of SAO where Player-Killing is rewarded, the pain absorption meter has been dialed down and there are new game mechanics. Features a Kirito with leadership qualities, more development for the side characters and an emphasis on guild politics. Eventual Kirito/Asuna pairing. Rated M for a reason.
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Comments: 13
Kudos: 37





	1. Information Chapter

**\- The Swordsman Chronicles -**

_A Story By Twisted Films_

All rights reserved, SAO is the property of Reki Kawahara

* * *

The phenomenon known as Sword Art Online has long acted as quite the source of inspiration for me, as evident by my countless (failed) attempts at writing a story set within its universe. Most of these stories were written back when I was a horny 14-year old, and as such, the quality of my writing was about as horrible as you would expect. But now, after multiple all-nighters and several horrible plots thrown to the wayside, I think I might have finally come up with something worthwhile.

So let me start off by providing you with some quite important details about this story, and where I plan to take it. This is crucial information, so I urge you to take your time reading this little segment.

* * *

**This story will be a completely different beast than that of the canon version of SAO.**

This is by no means a "re-telling" of the original story. What I aim to do here is essentially rewrite the entire Aincrad Arc, introducing new plotlines, new characters and a bunch of new elements and game mechanics as I go along. Thus why I call this a "reimagining" instead of a "re-telling" or "redo". I want to portray a different version of SAO, a version that we never got to see in the original novels. This, however, does not mean that old characters like Klein, Lizbeth and Silica will be thrown to the wayside. They will still play a huge role in the story, just in a different manner.

**This will be a mature fanfiction, which means that it will include mature themes such as excessive violence, swearing and hints at sexual behavior.**

If you are not comfortable with that, I recommend turning around right now, because this will undoubtedly put you off. I intend to push the M-rating to its limits, which might prove to be too much for some people.

**I will also be making some changes to the Sword Art Online game and its mechanics.**

**1.** The pain absorption meter will be dialed back quite a lot. Whilst an attack won't hit just as hard as it would in real life, cuts, bruises and taking damage in general will hurt. However, the feeling of pain will subside much faster than it would in real life.

 **2.** Player-Killing has been revamped. PK's are now REWARDED as opposed to just punished. There **are** still some punishments for PK-ing (red cursor etc.) but there is more of an incentive to kill. This will make PK Guilds like Laughing Coffin way more of a threat than they were in the source material.

 **3.** Blood is a factor here. If you cut someone, blood will (naturally) leak from the wound. Dismemberment therefore becomes a much more gruesome possibility. Dismembered limbs will still regenerate, although at a much slower rate than in the anime.

 **4.** Multiple new status effects have been added to the game, the first of which you will encounter in the chapter you are about to read. I did this due to the belief that it will add more flair to some of the in-game systems, and generally make it a more interesting experience.

 **5.** The hidden "Ethics Code" option buried deep in the player settings is always set to off. Yes, that means that there will be sexual themes showcased in this fanfiction. There will also perhaps be "lemons", or detailed descriptions of sexual interactions in this story.

 **6.** And finally, the Player-Housing system has been drastically expanded. You will realize what I mean by this later on in the story.

* * *

**MMORPG TERMS EXPLAINED FOR NEW READERS**

**(SKIP THIS IF YOU HAVE PLAYED AN MMO IN YOUR LIFE, OR KNOW THESE TERMS FROM BEFORE)**

_This part is dedicated to informing new readers about all the different terms used in an MMORPG. If you know this from before, feel free to skip this section._

**EXP** – Experience Points. You collect these by doing quests, killing monsters, utilizing your skills and so forth. Once you have enough, you will advance to the next level. This will give you more health and Skill Points you can use to improve your current stats. Simple as that.

 **Col** \- The type of currency used in the world of Aincrad. You gain Col by killing monsters, completing quests and selling items.

 **Mobs** – Mobs is a term used to define multiple monsters. If I for instance write: "Kirito saw multiple mobs wandering about in the forest", that means I'm referring to a group of monsters walking around.

 **Skills** – Different things you can train yourself in and level up. Example: fishing, cooking, smithing and so forth.

 **Guild** – A Guild is a group of players playing together under the command of one (or multiple) "guild leaders". Can be small or large, depending on the amount of players currently in the guild. Members have to follow rules set by the leader.

 **Stats** – Statistics displaying your current level in different skills, your armor rating, total damage output and so forth.

* * *

That marks the end of the informational chapter. I honestly do hope you enjoy the story, as I have put a lot of time and effort into writing this. Hopefully, I'll be able to create a version of Sword Art Online that we've never seen before!

-Twisted


	2. The Game Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

I kept a close eye on the Feral Wolf as I rapidly maneuvered my way through my inventory screen. The rabid creature was snarling and growling at me, a steady stream of drool dripping from its jaws. A floating health bar above its head indicated that the monster had lost half its HP. Most of this damage was due to lucky hits I had been able to score whilst dodging the Feral Wolf's easily predictable attack patterns.

Despite being an avid gamer, I would say I was in relatively good shape, with lean muscles covering the majority of my body. My medium-length black hair had been carefully brushed to the left in an arch to keep it from getting in my face during combat. My onyx eyes quickly scanned through my inventory, taking stock of my supplies.

_Dammit. Only two Health Potions left. Dammit all to the abyss._

I would have to make them count. Discarding my menu, I once again reverted my attention back to the beast standing before me. Bloodlust shone from its eyes, and the health bar above its head informed me that the animal had just received the " **Enraged** " status effect. I vaguely remembered that whilst the beast was in Enraged-mode, it would receive a buff to its attack damage and speed, outweighed by a negative effect that would cause it to attack with wild abandon, taking little regard for its own safety. This would give me plenty of opportunities to strike.

Seeing the beast suddenly tense up and ready itself to attack, I immediately fell down into a low crouching position with my sword pointed out and upwards from my body. I knew this particular attack like the back of my hand at this point. Seconds later, the Feral Wolf lunged in a desperate charge, oblivious to my secret strategy. Little did it know that in doing so, it had sealed its fate. As the animal came within my reach, I jabbed my sword forwards with surprising speed, effectively impaling the wolf. The weapon cut straight through its soft belly, splashing warm blood on my hand and arm. As its health bar rapidly depleted, the wolf let out one final ear-piercing shriek before exploding into a shower of tiny fragments.

With my arms shaking and my torso covered in blood, I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched the last remnants of the wolf disappear into the air. The stupid creature had practically killed itself by jumping on my sword. Sometimes the AI in this game could be too predictable.

I had been fighting these mobs all morning in order to work up the Col I needed to upgrade my somewhat weak armor. That feeling every gamer worth his salt had experienced at some point flowed through my body: the excitement of finally being able to upgrade your gear. Sadly, this moment didn't last. It never did. The crushing realization always returned, always came back to remind me that every day spent in here was a day lost in the real world. As I returned my sword to its sheath, I looked up at the evening sky, the trees around me casting long shadows across the ground. The sun was about to set.

Standing there, it all seemed so real. The wind blowing through my hair, the smell of grass and the firmness of the sword in my hand. If I didn't know any better, I could've perhaps thought this to be the real world. To be fair, what was really the difference?

_Everything around you is made up of 1s and 0s._

As much as I tried to convince myself otherwise, this wasn't the real world. I was living inside of a virtual reality. What I was seeing in front of me wasn't real.

_Two weeks have passed, and we are still stuck at Floor 1. Players are dropping like flies, their brains getting fried by the microwaves emitted from the NerveGear. Real people are dying, and we aren't making any real progress... Is this what true doom feels like? The impossibility of conquering this iron castle that is our prison?_

These thoughts kept me occupied as I started on the trek back to the village of Horunka.

* * *

In the year 2022, the technological genius and eccentric Kayaba Akihiko released the NerveGear. This astonishing new piece of tech allowed its user to experience Virtual Reality like never before by interrupting the signals sent from the brain at the base of the wearer's neck and redirecting them into the NerveGear instead. This allowed for total immersion in the virtual world, with the system taking control of all bodily senses like movement, sight, hearing and taste. The NerveGear would then send impulses "stimulating" these senses to the brain, giving the user the "experience" of for instance hearing and seeing something extraordinary, when in reality, he or she was lying completely still on a bed.

Needless to say, the NerveGear was a huge commercial success, and garnered massive attention from the mainstream media. The device itself sold countless units to people all around the world, despite having almost zero applications designed for it yet. It was, in all honestly, a great time to be a geek.

Therefore, when news arrived saying that Kayaba Akihiko was developing his very own video game for the system, the gaming community worldwide went absolutely haywire. Gaming websites and news outlets exploded with articles about Akihiko's mysterious new game, with the press heralding him as the "Messiah of Technology". The game would be made available to everyone worldwide, and boasted an impressive translation program that would automatically translate all speech to sound like your own native tongue, no matter what language it was originally spoken in.

However, despite all of the media attention the project garnered, Kayaba remained incredibly humble, only agreeing to do a couple of interviews before going completely MIA. These few interviews marked the start of a period where no further news or updates were to be given on the progress of the video game for several years. This complete silence from Kayaba and his dev team lead the press to start speculating on whether or not the whole ordeal had been one big lie. The game became a target for constant ridicule on internet forums, with gamers and sceptics stating that "it would never be released".

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Kayaba Akihiko resurfaced, returning with a fully playable version of his game, which had now been given a name: "Sword Art Online". Seemingly out of nowhere, SAO was all the hype again. To the media's great frustration, however, access to the playable version was only given to 10,000 lucky players in Japan. Capturing any actual gameplay or taking screenshots from the game and sharing it online was strictly forbidden, with perpetrators risking a lifetime ban and a monetary fine if they were caught.

Throughout all of this, I, Kazuto Kirigaya, had been keeping up with any rumors, any blog posts, any comments left on forums regarding Kayaba Akihiko's new game. I owned a NerveGear myself, and understood fully well the amount of potential the device held. If Kayaba could succeed in creating a fully functional virtual reality world… I would honestly consider quitting school and education just so I could move into and live in that world instead.

So when launch day finally arrived, you bet I was first in line at my local game store, having spent the night in a tent outside the entrance. Even then, I only barely managed to snag myself a copy of the game before the stock ran out. Biking home with my heart beating wildly in my chest, I kicked the pedals harder than I had ever done before, racing to get home in time. Luckily enough, once I actually got home, I just about managed to get into the game before the server hit maximum capacity, as at that point in time, the server could only hold a maximum of about 30,000 players.

The first few hours were great. I managed to get out of the Town of Beginnings, do a couple of quests, and was well on my way towards the second village when the forced teleport struck. At first, I thought it to be nothing more than a server-wide event to celebrate the launch of the game, but little did I know that my entire world was about to change.

In the time following Kayaba Akihiko's announcement that all of the players currently logged in to Sword Art Online were prisoners and that death in the game would mean death in the real world, most of the playerbase went into shock. Depression surged through us all like an evil wave, pushing several people to the brink of insanity. Many even chose to end their own lives by throwing themselves off the edge of the map and vanishing into the endless abyss below.

Personally, I coped by throwing myself into danger. I ventured out as far as I could, slaying beast after beast along the way. It felt… cathartic, in a way, to mindlessly butcher and kill as I wallowed in my own self-despair. I must've looked crazy to anyone else, but at the time, I didn't particularly care. I just knew that whatever I was doing, it felt right.

The pain got easier to bear with time though, of course. Hours turned to days, and before long, we were two weeks into the game, with no end in sight.

* * *

The village of Horunka was a small village located in the northwestern part of the First Floor. It consisted of ten buildings, including an inn, a weapon shop and a tool shop. It was, for the most part, used as a hunting base for players who were looking to grind EXP from the nearby monster spawns. It also acted as the starting point for a couple of lesser-known quests, one of whom would gift the taker with an **[Anneal Blade]** upon completion, which was arguably the strongest one-handed sword one could get on the First Floor. Needless to say, that quest had been the first thing I had prioritized upon logging in.

The only reason I knew about it in the first place was due to my habit of hanging out on different internet forums that was known to have beta testers among its users. In the months and weeks prior to the launch of the game, I had pretty much always kept the forums open on my computer. Much to my own dismay, I hadn't personally gotten into the beta test, so everything I knew about the game came from game manuals, leaked forum posts, interviews and comments left by other beta testers.

Since Horunka Village was still relatively unknown to the majority of the players, I didn't encounter anyone as I headed towards the inn I was staying at. The small wooden building only had five rooms available, with me taking up one of them. A swordsman named Malthar took up another room, but I had never actually spoken to the guy, so naturally, I assumed he spent most of his day out and about, like I did.

The NPC innkeeper, a woman in her fifties, gave me a quick look as I entered the building. I paid her no mind. No dialog would be triggered unless I physically walked up to her anyway. Her AI was relatively simple like that. Walking up the staircase leading to the second floor, I caught a quick glimpse of another player entering one of the rooms before closing the door shut behind him.

 _That must've been Malthar,_ I thought to myself as I approached the door leading in to my own room. _Never seen the guy come back to the village so early. Wonder if something happened to him… Oh well._

As I opened the door, the lamp that stood next to the bed automatically turned on, illuminating the interior. It was a rather simple little room, sparsely decorated with a bed, a lamp, a desk and a wooden chair. It wasn't much, but it was enough for me, and definitely worth the small amount of Col I had to pay to live here.

After maneuvering my way through my inventory and unequipping all of my gear, I finally laid down in my bed. The soft pillow felt good against my tired head, and after a short while, the lamp automatically turned off again. Letting out a long sigh, I turned around and got into a more comfortable position.

Sleep proved, as always, elusive, and I gave up after trying for 30 minutes. My thoughts drifted back to my family in the real world, and to my loving sister, Suguha. A lump started forming in my throat, and before long, a single tear rolled down my cheek.

_I miss you._

Memories of my childhood surfaced from the depths of my mind, reminding me of better days, when I didn't have a care in the world. It was only Suguha and me against the world back then. We didn't need anyone else.

_I can't do this alone…_

_I don't want to do this alone!_

_I'm not strong enough to survive this. I'm not..._

In my head, I relived those memories, of playing console games with her in the basement, of sipping soda on the porch and watching the traffic zoom by, just the two of us.

_You are my only friend…_

The tears were flowing freely now, streaking down my face before hitting the duvet with a soft thud. I stayed like that until I finally fell asleep, silently sobbing into my pillow, forced to relive memories I would rather forget.

_I don't want to die… Please… someone… help me._

Of course, nobody would hear me. Nobody would be there to tell me that everything was going to be all right, that I wouldn't have to fight anymore. That I wouldn't have to risk my life every day fighting monsters and beasts that wished nothing more than to end my existence.

_I don't… I don't want to die. Please… please… save us…_

* * *

Timeskip

**December 7th, 2024 - Floor 2**

I let out a long sigh as my sword, the **[** **Anneal Blade]** _+3_ , slid into the scabbard on my back with a satisfying sound. The sun was about to set, and the temperature had gone down from a scolding heat to a nice, comfortable breeze. The savanna stretched out in front of me, a barren yet beautiful landscape filled with all sorts of ox-type monsters, continually popping into existence. If I pretended for long enough, I might've been able to convince myself I was on an exotic safari back in the real world. Needless to say though, I wasn't. The magical scenery in front of me was nothing short of a virtual illusion, a world governed and created by code. Nothing in this world was real, after all. Not even my own body. The thought of that still occasionally sickened me, despite having been stuck in this game of death for over a month now.

Earlier that day, I had been lucky enough to overhear a conversation between two players in the town of Urbus, the main town of the Second Floor of Aincrad. The players had talked about an old lady who lived on a farm in the middle of the savanna, which was located on the western side of the Floor. The lady would apparently offer the player a quest which, judging by the players' heated conversation, had a rather decent reward. Deciding to check it out for myself, I had immediately headed out towards this rumored farm, only stopping by the general store to stock up on supplies.

After a rather tedious hike, I had finally spotted the lonesome farm in the distance. Talking to the old lady, I had quickly realized why the questgiver offered such a good reward. The quest, titled "Buffalo Frenzy", wanted the taker to retrieve 15 of the item " _Buffalo Horns_ ", which was only dropped by the (quite fittingly) buffalo-like monster called "Wild Buffalo". In the Beta Version of the game, this wouldn't have been a problem. But, after the launch of Sword Art Online and the start of the death game, the pain-absorption meter had been dialed back considerably, causing every attack in the game to hurt way more than what could be considered comfortable. Call it a sick little surprise by the genius and mastermind behind it all, Kayaba Akihiko. Now, with that in mind, imagine fighting a wild buffalo with nothing but a one-handed sword. Yeah, in all probability, you were going to get hurt. And let me tell you, hurt it did. After killing 9 of the wild beasts, I felt ready to drop dead on the spot, despite my HP bar resting comfortably in the yellow zone. Every inch of my body ached from where the various buffalos had charged into me and knocked me over. The damn thing hit about as hard as a fire-truck, and despite my rather well-timed dodges, the monsters had still been able to score a few hits.

Eventually though, after what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to kill enough "Wild Buffalo" to have 15 " _Buffalo Horns_ ".

The wind ruffled my hair as I headed back towards the old lady's farm. The digital watch that rested comfortably in the upper right of my field of view told me it was 19.13 in the evening, which was later than I would've thought. Judging time correctly could be hard in Sword Art Online, especially for the frontline players, who spent most of their time inside dungeons. Personally, I estimated myself to be above the average player in terms of levels, resting comfortably at Level 7, but I didn't consider myself a part of the frontline group. After all, I hadn't been there when the Raid Group had taken on the first Floor Boss, **Illfang the Kobold Lord**.

* * *

On December the 4th, 2022, a blue-haired self-proclaimed "Knight" had held a meeting for players interested in taking on the First Floor Boss in the village of Tolbana on the First Floor. Personally, I hadn't been able to attend the meeting due to a rather taxing quest line involving several particularly annoying carnivorous plants, but judging from what I'd heard from other players, the meeting had been a success, and the newly formed raid party were to head out the following morning. At the time, I was still struggling to cope with the whole "stuck in a death game" thing, so I hadn't exactly felt mentally prepared enough to participate in the boss battle.

The Floor Boss himself had turned out to harbor quite the nasty little surprise in the form of a brand-new weapon and attack pattern previously not seen in the beta, which sadly resulted in the death of their group leader, causing a huge drop in moral amongst the players fighting the boss. However, due to the presence of two highly skilled players, a red-haired swordsman wielding a katana and a chestnut-haired female fencer, the group had successfully managed to take down the Floor Boss, thus opening the way to the Second Floor.

This was a huge victory, and not just for the frontline players. At that point, over a month had passed, and no real progress had been made. People were beginning to lose hope, myself included. At the time, my entire existence had felt nothing short of meaningless. But when the Raid Group returned to the Town of Beginnings and announced to everyone that the Floor Boss had been beaten, and that the road to the Second Floor was clear, I dared hope. I dared hope that one day, I would be able to return to my family, be able to see them again and tell them how much I loved them. I was bad at that kind of stuff. Telling people how much I truly cared, how much they truly meant to me. But I made a promise to myself that day, that if I ever got out of Aincrad, if I managed to survive, then I would tell them. I owed them as much. I owed my sister as much, my best friend.

* * *

Walking along the narrow path that lead back to the old lady's farm, a familiar sensation hit me, one I had felt multiple times since the start of this death game. Loneliness. True, soul-crushing loneliness. I had been an avid gamer my entire life, and thus, I had grown quite accustomed to being alone. But this time, it felt different. For the first time in my relatively short life, I felt absolutely, completely alone. I had nobody. No family, no friends, absolutely nobody to lean on. No one would be there to comfort me, to support me, to have my back.

 _... I can't… think like that. Not anymore. I can't surrender myself to grief. If I do… I will never get out of here alive_ , I thought to myself, teeth clenched. Despite the pain, despite the loneliness, I could no longer afford to look back. I had to be strong, stronger than anyone, if I wanted to survive. I wasn't going to cry anymore. From here on out, I was going to be a new person, a stronger person.

It was funny, really. Almost ironic. Once, in my earlier days as a gamer, being stuck in a video game had been my biggest dream. Now that I actually was though, I realized it was nothing short of a nightmare. People, real people, were dying every day, falling victim to the wickedness of the system. Yeah, being stuck in a **normal** game might've been fun. But this? This was hell.

* * *

After completing the quest by talking to the old lady and turning in the items, I was greeted by a small reward-window that listed the EXP and Col I had gained, as well as a couple of items I had to choose between as a quest reward. After carefully looking at each one of them, I went with the item **[** **Strider Boots]** , because they gave me a slight boost to stamina, agility and sprint-speed. They also matched with the rest of my outfit, which centered around the color black.

 _Huh, so the players I overheard in Urbus weren't lying, this quest did actually have a rather decent reward…_ I thought to myself as I inspected my brand new piece of equipment.

The EXP I had gained from both killing the mobs and completing the quest put me just below the requirement to reach Level 8, which was a slight confidence boost. Levelling up was one of the best parts of any MMO, and the feeling of physically growing stronger was nothing short of spectacular. After checking to see that there wasn't any other quests to be accepted at the farm, I started on the long journey back to Urbus. It was now 21.04 in the evening, meaning I had spent just under an hour finishing up the quest. Getting back to Urbus would take at least another 30 minutes, and once I got there, I had to find something to eat.

Eating was, without a sliver of a doubt, my favorite pastime activity in Sword Art Online. The game utilized something called a Taste Recreation Engine, which was nothing short of revolutionary. In the real world, the feeling of "eating something" was created by the combination of a bunch of different factors, like texture, aroma, taste and so forth. Recreating something like that in a video game would require huge amounts of data to be processed at all times, because the system would have to keep track of all of these factors for every individual meal currently present in the game world. So not only would it require an absolutely ludicrous amount of storage and processing power, it would also take years, if not decades, to implement. The "Taste Recreation Engine" sidestepped all of these problems by instead combining pre-set data to recreate the **taste** of a singular meal. So, for instance, if the player was eating Spaghetti and Meatballs, the system would recognize that specific meal and select a preset that contained one particular taste, which had been specified to fit that meal ahead of time.

Now, as genius as this was, it wasn't without its limitations. The lack of a proper system, however extreme it would have to be, meant that it could sometimes be hard to distinguish between the sensation of eating for instance a cake and a piece of toast. The texture usually felt oddly similar, which could be unsettling if you were to for instance eat ice cream and it evoked the same sensation as eating a plate of pasta. The taste was naturally different, but the sensation widely the same. This was without a doubt due to system limitations, but still, it was something that could be rather odd at times.

* * *

The entire city of Urbus was constructed to look like it had been excavated from a flat-topped mountain, resting comfortably in its crater. Like all district settlements, Urbus had a main street, which ran from the north to the south, and a Teleport Gate Plaza located in an elevated Town Square in the middle of the city. The buildings were largely made up of smooth grey rock, and lanterns hanging from lampposts lit up the city at night. It was nowhere near as big as the Town of Beginnings, but it wasn't what one would consider a small city either.

As I made my way through its maze-like streets, I eventually came to a halt in front of a wooden door that was seemingly built into the stone wall. A lone lantern hung outside, illuminating the signpost right next to it. The sign showed a hammer being swung towards an anvil, with the words "The Lone Blacksmith" written above it.

"The Lone Blacksmith" was an inn located on the western side of the city, far away from the bustling life of the main street. Only a few players even knew about its existence, much less the somewhat interesting quest one could pick up from the innkeeper. The quest itself didn't offer much in terms of Col or EXP, but it did offer a rather… special reward. Upon completion, the innkeeper would gift the player with a quite unique type of beer. Its name was " _Honeyed Beer_ ", and as the name implied, it was an incredibly sweet beverage. But that wasn't the only special property the unique item had. When drunk, the player would receive an absolutely massive buff to attack speed. Sadly, the buff only lasted for 30 minutes, but that alone could easily turn the tide of almost any battle. Needless to say, if the word of such an item existing ever reached the public ear, the inn would be flooded with players looking to complete the quest, so I made sure to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasted.

As I opened the door leading into the building, bright light flooded out onto the empty street behind me, momentarily blinding me. Nighttime in SAO could get incredibly dark at times, and without the Nightvision skill, one could easily have a hard time maneuvering around. Sadly, since we, the players, had currently only reached Floor 2, only a select few had chosen to use one of their few Skill Slots for such a (quite frankly) pointless skill.

As my vision gradually returned to me, I found the inn to be… oddly empty. One could usually find at least three or more players drinking at the bar or resting comfortably in one of the rocking chairs that were dotted throughout the tavern-space, but now, I could only see one, sitting alone at the back of the room with a half-empty mug of beer in front of him. I tended to avoid social contact with other players (mostly just because I felt incredibly uncomfortable in most social situations), and tonight was no different. I headed for the staircase leading up to my rented room, fully intent on ignoring the lone player, but halfway there, I was interrupted by the sound of him coughing in a manner that hinted that he wanted my attention.

I stopped, out of both curiosity and propriety, and gave the player a closer inspection. He wore a brown leather coat underneath an iron chestplate that obviously belonged in the Medium-Armor class, with short, brown hair jutting up from his head. A slender one-handed sword rested in a scabbard on his back, and I spotted several throwing darts hanging in a strap from his waist.

_He's used one of his Skill Slots for the Throwing skill, huh? An interesting choice… somewhat unorthodox, but definitely interesting…_

But there was one specific detail that stood out, a detail so special it couldn't possibly be missed: his right and left eye color didn't match. His left eye was a deep blue, whilst his right eye was dark crimson.

As I approached him, he raised his mug towards me, as if giving me an imaginary toast.

"Hey there bro, mind joining a lonely guy for a pint of beer?" he said with possibly the widest smile I had ever seen. I took a seat opposite of him, still unable to stop gazing at his eyes. He must've noticed, because he let out a small sigh, dipping his head to break eye contact.

"Yes, I know, I know, weird eyes, 'amirite? But I would have you know, it is actually a perfectly normal… well, perhaps not normal, but definitely not dangerous, medical condition known as Heterochromia Iridum," he finished, looking back up at me again with that same wide smile.

"Oh! Umm… I don't think it's weird! I just… ehh… well, I've just never seen anything like it, that's all," I retorted, shaking my head.

"Naah, don't worry about it man, everyone stares at them the first time they meet me. I'm used to it by now. The name's Marco, by the way!" He stretched out his empty hand to greet me. I stared at it for a moment, before realizing he was looking for a handshake. Deciding that it would be rude to just leave him hanging, I shook it.

"Yeah… umm… I'm Kaz… Kirito … I'm Kirito." I almost told him my real name out of habit, before realizing my mistake and correcting it. My name wasn't Kazuto anymore. In this world, I was Kirito, and nothing more. Kazuto was dead and buried.

"Kirito, huh? Interesting name… Well, now that all of the formalities are out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks!" he said, gesturing for one of the NPC waitresses to come over. "But first, let's get you a beer. Don't worry, it's on me."

I almost shook my head in disagreement, before realizing that it would also be rude to decline a free beer, especially after he had offered to pay for it. So, I simply nodded and stayed silent. After finishing the order, Marco reverted his attention back to me once again.

"So, no doubt you must be very confused right about now," he started, folding his hands on the table. "As you might've already guessed, I didn't call you over here just for the sake of enjoying your company, as lovely as it might be."

I couldn't do much but nod in response. He was right, I had guessed that he must've had some other reason for wanting to talk to me.

"I'll be frank and cut straight to the chase then; yesterday, I located the first Field Boss of this floor."

I raised an eyebrow in surprise, not quite sure what this had to do with me. Field Bosses were "mini bosses" scattered around a Floor that usually rewarded large amounts of EXP and Col if taken down. Normally, if one happened to stumble across one of these, you would immediately report it to either one of the two big frontline guilds, the Aincrad Liberation Squad or the Dragon Knights Brigade, as they were currently the only Guilds with enough members and resources to take on such formidable opponents.

"Erm… okay? Wh… why are you telling me this?" I asked, clearly confused. He simply stared at me in response, a wide grin forming on his face. It took me a little while to catch on, but once I finally did, it hit me like lightning from a clear sky. The thought of it alone made my eyes widen in shock.

"No… no you can't be serious…" I muttered, slowly shaking my head. Marco's eyes seemed to shine with a newfound intensity as it dawned on me just what he had in mind.

"But… But there's no way you can solo a Field Boss! It's simply not possible!" I said, still in utter disbelief. Marco let out a short chuckle before shaking his head.

"Hold your horses compadre, who said I was going to solo it? That would be suicide! No, you are going to help me, of course!" he stated, as if it was the most normal suggestion ever.

I was speechless. I didn't even know this guy, and now he wanted me to lay down my life for a suicide mission?

"But… Can't you see this is suicide?! There's no way the two of us are going to be able to take down a Field Boss on our own!" I said, almost screaming at this point. Marco apparently seemed to find my little breakdown quite entertaining, as he laughed yet again before emptying the last of his mug in one large swig. The NPC waitress chose that moment to return with my beer, and I had to restrain myself in order to act calm. After thanking her for her service, I took a huge swig of the beer. The bitter taste helped calm my nerves, despite there not being any alcohol in it what so ever. SAO had a strict no-alcohol rule, due to a rather big portion of the playerbase being underage.

"Not to worry though, I have a special weapon," Marco said, sending me a cheeky wink.

"What could possibly help us take down a Field Boss on our own?" I responded, staring down into my now half-empty mug of beer. Marco simply smiled, before leaning over the table, closer to me.

"An acquaintance of mine. Actually, two acquaintances. The first goes by the name of Klein, but you might know him better as the "red-headed katana-wielder" of the First Floor. And the second is Asuna, a fencer with unrivalled speed and attack power."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So by now, most of you should be able to see where I'm going with this. As you undoubtedly noticed, I chose to utilize a timeskip between the First and Second Floor, as I figured most of you are probably dead tired of reading about the same fight against Illfang the Kobold Lord as you have done many times before. I also chose for Kirito to not participate in the boss fight, in order to save the introduction of Asuna and Klein's characters for the next chapter. I figured a change of pace would be nice.
> 
> From this point on, I won't be following what is considered "canon" as much in this story either. I want to write my own work that is separate from that of Reki Kawahara's, and I reckon that following a completely different plotline is the best way of achieving this.
> 
> Kirito's personality is also quite different from that of his anime counterpart, as I find Kirito in the anime to be quite boring to watch.
> 
> As for Marco and other OC characters, I won't be using many of those moving forward either. Marco is pretty much the only one I will introduce for the time being, and we'll have to see what I decide to do in the future.


	3. New Acquaintances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

Letting out a heartfelt yawn, I stared out across the wide open savanna of the 2nd Floor of Aincrad as our little party of two made its way across the terrain. The peaceful atmosphere of a calm morning was only betrayed by the constant growling of the buffalo-type monsters that littered the landscape. A quick look at the upper right side of my field of view told me that it was currently 07.00 in the morning, which was way too early for my liking.

"Look, I get that you want to take on this Field Boss of yours, but did we really have to do it this early in the morning? It's not like it's gonna go anywhere…" I asked, stretching my arms over my head.

"No, I know that! I'm just afraid that if we wait for too long, other players are going to find it and kill it before we get to do it," Marco pointed out, nodding with that smug smile of his plastered on his face.

"Yeah right, like that's going to happen! You're the only one who's suicidal enough to try," I retorted matter-of-factly, shifting my attention away from him to scan our surroundings. Where in the world was this Field Boss anyway?

"That may be the case, but it's not like we are going to 1v1 this thing. We got my two buddies helping us out, remember?"

Ahh, yes. Klein. The infamous "katana-wielder". After the launch of Sword Art Online, a particular group of players quickly turned into the most hated part of the playerbase. The beta testers. Accused of leaving all of the new players behind, most testers these days chose to keep their status a secret, out of fear for what the other players might do to them if they found out. Player-Killing, as horrible as it was, still existed in SAO after all, despite being considered a direct crime by most of the playerbase. Who in their right mind would want to purposefully stunt the progress of the game by killing one of their comrades after all? All that would serve to do was keep us trapped in here even longer, and God knows nobody wanted that to happen.

After the boss battle on Floor 1, the leader of the Aincrad Liberation Squad, a man named Kibaou, had called out a portion of his fellow raid members for being beta testers. The players, to everyone's great surprise, had simply laughed at his accusations, and told him that the beta testers weren't as evil as he imagined. This, of course, had only acted to further infuriate the guy, and he had promptly coined them "beaters", a combination of the words cheater and beta tester. This term had stuck around, and now, all beta testers were regarded as "beaters".

"How come you know this Klein guy anyway? Isn't he supposed to be an "evil" beta tester or something?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could, trying my best to brush it off as a casual question.

"Mostly by happenstance, to be honest. We ran across each other in Urbus whilst turning in the same quest, and kind of just hit it off. I quickly understood that the rumors surrounding them were wildly exaggerated, as he helped me locate a particularly tricky mob without me offering him anything in return. We partied up for a quest as well, and added each other to our Friends Lists afterwards".

To be honest, I wasn't too surprised. I had always found the other players' treatment of the beta testers wrong and uncalled for anyways, so to learn that one of the infamous "beaters" was actually a nice guy didn't exactly come as a shock. Why someone such as him had agreed to help Marco with his suicide mission, however, was confusing. Klein had to be at least somewhere amongst the top 10 strongest players in the game, but you didn't get to be that strong by taking unnecessary risks.

As our little party ventured closer and closer to the mountains surrounding the savanna, I noticed that the monster population seemed to grow sparser with every step we took. The sound of growling got more and more distant, and before long, we were walking in complete silence. The terrain around us changed from a rolling savanna to that of highlands and rock, with all signs of vegetation disappearing. We were in the mountain region now, where the mobs were stronger and the safety of Urbus further away.

As I watched the last remnants of the savanna disappear behind us, I felt a slight bubble of nervousness emerge from the pit of my stomach. We were on our own now. If we were to be caught by a pack of roaming monsters out here, nobody would come to our rescue. Marco must've noticed the look of concern on my face, because he sent me a comforting smile and gestured to the road ahead.

"Hey compadre, there's nothing to worry about. I've been here multiple times, so I know this area like the back of my hand. Nothing unexpected is going to jump out at us without me knowing it first".

As comforting as that was, it raised another question.

"Wait, if you've been out here before, then I'm assuming that you have already sold your map data for Col in Urbus, right? There's a lot of cash to be made by selling information, after all," I inquired, cocking my head ever so slightly to the right. Marco simply chuckled and kept on walking, ignoring my question entirely.

After hiking for well over an hour, we finally arrived at the location Marco had spotted the Field Boss in the day before. As we approached the location, a group of two players came out from behind a collection of rocks, one of them geared to the teeth with top-of-the-line armor and rare drops. I spotted **[** **Ashbringer]** (a two-handed sword in the katana class that was only dropped by the "Rock Golems" in the mountain region) and **[** **Breakers Chestplate]** (high-defense low-agility armor that could be purchased in Urbus for a big amount of Col) amongst the gear they were wearing. This particular player stood out to me due to his spiky red hair pushed up by a bandana and the wide grin on his face.

"There you are. We've been waiting for you for nearly half an hour now!" the red-haired player I assumed to be Klein remarked, crossing his arms and leaning up against one of the rocks.

"Sorry, sorry! Would've loved to come sooner, but I had to get this lazy-ass out of bed!" Marco smirked back, gesturing towards me. Feeling slightly insulted, I rolled my eyes and gave his arm a light jab.

"Ahh, so that's the player you mentioned in your message," the red-haired one replied, before pushing himself off the rock and walking towards us. "Light armor, one-handed sword, no shield… Interesting playstyle, my friend".

As we came to a halt in front of the group, I took a moment to inspect the red-haired player. Apart from the high-end gear, he looked nothing like the "evil beater" I had imagined him to be. Not that I had any right to talk, most of the information I knew came from previous beta testers after all.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kirito, and I'm guessing you are Klein?" I asked, giving him a slight nod.

"That's right. I'm Klein, and this is my friend, Asuna…" Klein answered, pointing towards the player wearing an old, rough-looking cloak standing in the back. The players' appearance didn't reveal much, but the name definitely did.

_Asuna? A female name?_

The other player casually reached up and pulled down the hood covering her face, revealing long, chestnut hair and deep blue eyes. I was shocked to say the least, my eyes widening in surprise at the sight of her.

_A female player in SAO? ... I mean, I always knew it was a possibility, I just haven't seen any yet… And she's hot too!_

Klein must've noticed me staring, because he let out an awkward cough that broke my trance. I immediately felt my face flushing a deep shade of crimson, and fixed my eyes on the ground instead.

"I'm… I'm sorry! I just… I haven't seen any female players in this game yet! Yes, I'm just surprised, that's all!" My embarrassment quickly shifted to great surprise as the chestnut-haired player suddenly burst out laughing. It was a sweet laugh, an innocent one filled with childlike glee that warmed your insides. Laughter wasn't a common thing here. Not in the game of death. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd laughed.

"Don't worry about it, I get that a lot," the girl known as Asuna chuckled whilst brushing away a stray lock of hair. I could've sworn I saw Klein blushing ever so slightly at that, as if remembering some distant memory he'd rather forget.

"A… anyway, now that we are all here, how about we go over the plan on how we are going to kill this thing?" Klein proposed, switching the topic before Asuna got the chance to make fun of him.

"Sounds good to me," Marco nodded, opening up his inventory to check on his supplies.

"Because you do have a plan, right Marco?"

"Of course I do! Who do you think I am, my dear Klein? My strategically superior mind thought of a plan the instant we arrived here!" I couldn't help but send him a skeptical look at that, as I really couldn't imagine Marco being what you would call a "strategic genius".

"Oh is that so? Then what is this "master plan" of yours?" Asuna chimed in, a slight smile visible on her face.

"We attack it with everything we've got and kill it. Then we split the loot and go home".

Almost everyone in our group, including me, let out a defeated sigh as Marco flashed us his signature grin.

"That's your plan? To just YOLO it and go all in?" Klein mumbled, scratching the back of his head.

"Yup, pretty much. And when one of us gets low on HP, we switch up our formation so that the wounded person gets placed at the back and has time to heal. Simple as that".

A moment of silence fell over our group as we contemplated Marco's "strategically superior" plan.

"You know, as much as I hate to admit it, I can't really think of any other way to tackle this," I sighed, admitting defeat.

"To be honest… me neither. We would need more information on the Field Boss in order to come up with a more proper plan anyways, and that's information we currently don't have," Asuna agreed, nodding her head as she opened her inventory.

"I'm in. Heck, we're all pretty high-levelled after all so this shouldn't be too hard," Klein shrugged, pulling his katana out of its sheath and inspecting it.

"Alright, it's settled then! We'll attack the Field Boss with all of our combined might and (hopefully) make it out alive! Forwards, my trusty minions!" Marco grinned, pointing towards a small clearing further up the hill.

"This is suicide," Asuna stated calmly whilst walking past me.

I couldn't bring myself to disagree.

* * *

As our party of 4 made its way up the hill, I started to feel more and more worried. We didn't even know what the boss looked like, much less its attack patterns. What if something went wrong? What if one of us got unlucky and forgot to dodge an attack? What if the Field Boss could simply one-shot us, killing our avatars in an instant and frying our brains in the real world? Asuna must have noticed the worried look on my face, as she reached over and gently tapped me on the shoulder.

"You okay there? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yeah no I'm fine… I just… I'm just worried, that's all. As much as it may seem otherwise, I don't actually enjoy putting my life on the line," I replied, shaking my head ever so slightly.

"Hey, that's perfectly okay. None of us do. God knows I'd much rather be sitting behind the safety of the walls in the Town of Beginnings right now than be out here. I… ehh… actually did that at the start too. I was so afraid, I just couldn't bring myself to leave… But then, after meeting Klein and working up the courage to go outside, something just... clicked in me. I headed out to the First Floor dungeon and threw myself right into danger. I fought like an animal, taking little regard to my own safety. I guess you could say I snapped," Asuna mumbled, her otherwise beautiful features marred by the grimace that suddenly appeared on her face.

"But I know better now. We can't do that. Because how are we ever going to get out of here if all we do is sit and cower in fear? Or mindlessly throw our lives away? Who is going to progress through all of the Floors and beat the final boss, if not for us? I realized that, after a while, and stopped trying to kill myself. I decided to get strong instead, so I could fight for all those who couldn't. Because like it or not, we are all stuck in here together. Might as well make the best of it," she continued, smiling instead of grimacing now.

She was right, of course. I knew that. Nobody was coming to save us, that much was obvious at this point. We had no choice but to participate in Kayaba Akihiko's twisted game. But that didn't make it any less horrible.

"Hey so, you guys done being all emotional back there? The boss is right up ahead," Marco said, nodding towards a sharp turn in the road.

"Yeah, I'm… I'm good. Thanks, Asuna," I sighed, sending her a weak smile. She returned it with a smile of her own.

As we rounded the corner, we finally saw the clearing. And to our great surprise, it was completely empty.

"Hey Marco, didn't you say the boss was supposed to be here?" Klein asked whilst scanning over the empty space with his eyes.

"Y… yeah, it… it should be right here! I swear it was right here last time!" Marco answered, nodding violently.

As the others spread out to search the clearing, I tried to think of a reason why the monster had suddenly disappeared. There was always the possibility that other players had come through here and killed it, but something told me that wasn't likely. Marco had been here up until rather late last night, and surely nobody would've been foolish enough to attempt to kill a Field Boss in the pitch black darkness of the night?

As I stood there pondering, I felt a slight vibration shooting through my left leg. It was nothing major, just a tiny shiver crawling through my body, but it was enough for me to notice. And that's when it struck me.

I immediately knelt down and placed my hand against the cold, rock ground, waiting for any signs of activity. At first, there was nothing. But then, I felt it. That slight vibration, coming from somewhere deep underground.

"Uhhh, guys?" I cried, a worried look starting to creep its way onto my face. The others promptly turned around, staring at me in confusion.

"I think… I think it's below us!"

Just as I said that, the vibrations coming from the ground magnified in their strength, now feeling more like shockwaves rather than twitches. Everyone in our party stood completely still, as if movement would somehow cause the ground beneath us to crumble. And crumble it did.

Asuna was the first one to scream as the ground beneath her caved in. In an instant, the chestnut-haired fencer was gone, swallowed by the clearing itself.

"Asuna!" Klein shouted, rushing over to where she had been standing just moments earlier. That turned out to be a bad move though, as the ground beneath him crumbled away too just as he reached the spot she had been standing in.

I watched in horror as my fellow party members all disappeared one by one, falling down as the ground collapsed beneath them. Soon, I was the only player left in the clearing, but that wasn't going to last long, as I could feel the ground beneath me beginning to shake violently.

_Ahh you have got to be kidding me…_

And then I fell down.

* * *

Falling through what should have been solid ground was about as scary as it sounds. In an instant, all light disappeared, and all I could do was scream helplessly as my body was thrown against the rocky walls. Up in the left corner, I could see my health bar depleting rapidly, each sliver that disappeared accompanied by a sudden rush of intense pain. Out of all the ways you could take damage in SAO, most players agreed that fall damage was the scariest one. You could be as strong as you wanted to, nothing would save you from the damage of a 50-foot drop onto solid ground.

Just as I thought I was done for, I spotted a tiny stream of light coming from somewhere below me, signaling that the tunnel was reaching an end. A very, very painful end. Letting out a scream, I hit the ground at what felt like mach 2 speed, the sudden impact sending waves of agony rippling through my body.

My mind in a haze, I slowly got up into a sitting position, groaning loudly as my legs protested. I was confused, scared, disoriented and in a lot of pain, but I was alive, with my health bar resting comfortably in the lower regions of the yellow zone. All around me, I heard the sounds of coughing and wheezing as my party members gradually picked themselves up. They too had thankfully survived the fall.

"I'm never taking on another Field Boss in my life, I swear to God," Klein coughed somewhere to my right.

"Tell me about it," Marco responded, his voice coming out as a raspy groan.

"Never mind that, where the hell are we?" Asuna's voice cut in, completely ignoring our complaints. I quickly scanned my surroundings, and was surprised to see that we were in what looked like a large, circular room, with one bright beam of sunlight flooding in through a hole in the middle. If I had to take a guess, I would've estimated the space to be at least a hundred meters wide when measured diagonally.

"Look at this place…" I muttered, awestruck by the thought of such a massive room existing directly beneath the clearing. It certainly looked like a Boss Room. A huge open room that got more and more spacious the closer you got to the center. Whatever Field Boss resided here would have to be enormous, at least if you were to judge its height by the distance from the floor to the roof.

"I… I suddenly have this eerie feeling…" I muttered, mostly to myself as I stared out over the vast space in front of me.

"Yeah..." Klein replied, a worried look plastered on his face. None of us felt comfortable here. Despite its size, the thought of fighting within an enclosed area such as this felt… restricting.

"Hey, can you guys see that?" Marco suddenly said, pointing his finger towards the opposite side of the room. As we all turned our attention to where he was pointing, I finally noticed what it was he was trying to show us. There was a shadowy silhouette crouched next to a huge rock on the opposite end, curiously peeking out over the edge. We must've caught its attention when we fell down.

"What… is that?" Asuna whispered, squinting her eyes in an attempt to see clearer. "A monster? … No, I don't see any red cursor… An NPC maybe?"

"No, that's… that's not what it is," I replied, also keeping my voice down. "That's definitely a… player…"

I let the sentence trail off as we all stared at the silhouette in complete silence. Then suddenly, the shadowy figure spoke up.

"Hey, are you guys just gonna stand there or what?"

As surprising as the sudden statement was, what was even MORE surprising was how light the tone of the voice was. It sounded like it belonged to a female.

"Uhm… Who are you?" Asuna shouted back, her head cocked ever so slightly to the left.

"Ahhh, that kind of personal information would usually cost ya… but I'll give this one to you free of charge! I'm Argo! Argo the Rat!"

* * *

Once we had all managed to make our way across the room to the other side, we finally got a better look at the mysterious player. The silhouette turned out to belong to a short, feline-like girl with curly auburn hair. Her armor consisted solely of Light Class leather armor that covered her entire body, and it was obvious to anyone that had any sort of experience with MMOs that she was going for an Agility build. What was most surprising about her appearance, though, was that she had three distinct whiskers drawn on her face, further strengthening the cat-like vibes she gave off.

"As I said, I'm Argo the Rat, information dealer extraordinaire! But you can call me Argo. If you pay me 100 Col, that is!"

Despite the suspicious circumstances surrounding her character, her upbeat tone of voice immediately deescalated any sort of tension that we might have felt. Her name, however, did ring a faint bell in my head…

"Wait a minute… you said your name was Argo… right?" I asked, desperately trying to grasp for what felt like a distant memory. That name… Where had I heard it before?

"That's right! Would never lie about my own name! Unless you paid me to of course!" she replied, shooting me a wide grin.

"Argo, Argo… Where have I… Ohhhh…" Something finally clicked in my head, and the memory fell into place. "Wait a minute here, you're Argo?! THE Argo?"

"Yes, sure am!"

"Umm, Kirito… what are you talking about?" Asuna asked, confusion dripping from her words.

"Oh, right, of course… You guys probably don't know who she is," I started, turning around to face my confused party members. "Argo the Rat is perhaps the most infamous Information Dealer in all of Aincrad. For the right price, she can provide information on just about anything and anyone, including information on Floor Bosses and quests that not a lot of people know about."

The group took a moment to digest this new piece of information, several of them looking at the petite girl with newfound respect.

"Yo!" she simply said, raising one hand in a greeting.

"But I never imagined you'd actually be a girl… Well, I don't know what I imagined to begin with, but definitely not… this…" I continued, trailing off as my thoughts drifted away.

"Have you heard about me before then?" Argo asked, twirling a strand of hair around one of her fingers.

"Well, I actually spoke with you back before… all of this… happened. Back when I hung out on the official forums and stuff. You always had a horde of people questioning you about random things, if I remember correctly…"

"Ahh, yes, I remember now! My inbox got spammed with a bunch of questions all hours of the day back then! Took me ages every morning to reply to each one," she smiled, almost jumping up and down in excitement. Then she suddenly stopped, and put on a wondering look. "In fact, I remember one guy in particular that was extra interested in information regarding the beta test… Hmmm…" Locking me with a questioning glare, I couldn't help but feel a slight blush creep up my neck.

"Yeah… that would be me… I'm sorry, I was just… well, very curious, I guess you could say," I laughed in an attempt to hide my own discomfort. Being called out like that in front of everyone felt kind of embarrassing, even if it really wasn't.

"What's your name?" she asked, the ravenous force of her look leaving me with no other option than answering her question. She was an Information Dealer after all, so knowing how to extract information was a crucial part of the job.

"I'm Kirito," I responded, awkwardly scratching the back of my head with one hand. The reaction from Argo was instant.

"Kii-boy!" she shouted as she jumped in my arms, forcing me to catch her. Luckily enough, she wasn't very heavy, and my Strength stat was sufficiently high enough to carry her without much of a problem. The others, on the other hand, were shocked to say the least.

"Uhhh?!" Klein nearly screamed, taking a step back in surprise at the spectacle unfolding in front of him. Even Asuna looked mildly uncomfortable, her facial expression switching between shocked and embarrassed at the speed of light.

"I never thought I'd see you here!" Argo continued, laughing giddily as she clung to my neck.

"Ehrm… Kirito? Mind telling us what is going on?" Marco asked, his face an expressionless mask.

"Well, during our long conversations over the internet, me and Argo developed a… well, a really messed up friendship of sorts," I coughed, my mind racing to come up with an explanation that wouldn't make me die of shame. "She eventually started calling me Kii-boy, and she must've recognized me when I told her my username…"

"That's right! You're definitely Kii-boy, no doubt about it! Perhaps a little cuter than I imagined, too!"

"Ehhm… Thanks? I guess?"

"You're more than welcome!"

"Mind letting go now? Not that you are heavy or anything, but… well, it's kind of weird."

With a playful sigh, she finally let go of my neck and let herself drop out of my arms, landing in one swift, continuous motion. Her gracefulness was a joy to behold, and definitely recognizant of someone with an incredibly high Agility stat.

"So, Argo, as surprising as it is to finally meet you in person," I said, dusting off my black leather coat. "What are you actually doing down here?"

"I'm here for the same reason you are, I reckon," the cat-like girl smiled, casually leaning up against the rock wall. "For information on the Field Boss."

"Ahh, so you knew about it too, huh?" Marco muttered, stroking his chin with one hand.

"Of course I did! I'm an Information Dealer, you know. Knowing stuff is my business!"

"Either way, how did you end up down here if you were only after the Boss for scouting purposes?" I inquired.

"Well, when I came to the clearing where the Boss was supposed to be, it was completely empty. I figured someone else might've come through and killed it, but I decided to investigate anyway. That's when the ground crumbled away underneath me, and I fell down here."

Nodding my head, I remembered thinking the exact same thing when we arrived at the clearing. Despite it being empty, it just felt… too suspicious, in a way, to pass on without investigating.

"So you've been down here for how long?" Asuna chimed in, her eyes scanning the room with interest, despite there being nothing in here but stone.

"For about 20 minutes, I think," Argo responded, scrunching up her face as she tried to collect her thoughts. "I think I've figured out the deal down here though."

"Oh, you have? Mind telling us? Cause I'm clueless," Klein said, gripping the sheath of his katana.

"Thinking about it logically, the Boss probably spawns when you get close to the center of the room. In other words, don't go into the middle unless you wanna fight," she started, gesturing towards the tiny ray of sunlight that broke through the roof in what could only be the middle of the room.

"I decided that I would wait for other players to also fall down here, and join up with them to take the Boss down. Not like I had any other choice, though, seeing as there doesn't appear to be any other exits in this room."

Taking a quick look around me, I noticed that there were indeed no obvious ways out of here.

"But… that's hardly fair, right? Forcing us to fight the Boss just to get out of here is awfully cruel. What if someone just happened to fall down here by mistake? They would be forced to fight the Boss on their own, lest they risk dying of thirst or something down here," I pointed out, inwardly terrified at the idea of being stuck underground all by myself.

"Yeah, well, Kayaba doesn't exactly play fair now does he?" Argo countered, smiling despite the rather dark nature of the argument. "I mean, I don't know about you, but forcing 30,000 players to play his death game with no way to leave isn't really what I'd call "friendly behavior", especially not considering the very real fact that we can actually die in here."

The rest of us went silent at that, seeing as we didn't really have any counter-arguments to her statement. Sword Art Online was in no way a "willing commitment" anymore, and her words reminded us just how dark our situation really was.

"But now that you guys are here, we can take on the Field Boss together! And then we can get out of here!" she finished, her voice cheering up considerably.

"I guess she has a point," Marco shrugged, opening up his menu by swiping two fingers downwards in the air. "I'll send you a party invite, hang on a second."

Moments later, an additional health bar appeared underneath the previous ones, signaling that a new player had joined the party. Our grand total of members was now up to 5, and we were marginally better suited to take on the Field Boss.

"Alright, that settles it. Let's summon this Field Boss, kick his ass, and get the hell out of here!"

* * *

Our party carefully maneuvered its way across the empty room, towards the small ray of light protruding from the roof in the middle. Every single shred of my attention was directed solely towards the task at hand, my eyes darting nervously around the open space, scanning for any potential threats. The Field Boss could, in theory, appear at any given moment, and we had to be prepared to dodge out of the way if such a thing actually ended up happening.

"Okay guys, I'll trigger the spawn, you stand back and prepare yourself to get out of the way," Marco decided, gesturing for us to stop moving. Muscles tensed, we watched in silence as he carefully approached the middle. Turning back one last time to make sure we were all ready, he sent us a small wink before swiping his hand right through the ray of light, disturbing its natural trajectory.

For a couple of seconds, nothing happened. Then suddenly, we heard it. A loud growling noise, coming from deep within the mountain itself.

"Prepare yourself!" I shouted, already heading back towards the nearest wall at a breakneck pace. A quick look back told me the others were doing the exact same thing.

Barely a moment later, the ground in the middle of the room cracked open with a loud bang, sending particles of rock and gravel flying in all directions. Then the floor seemed to cave in on itself, and out came the biggest lizard I had ever seen, fictional or not, in my entire life.

Spanning several dozen meters, the lizard stood up on its hind legs, letting out an ear-piercing shriek that seemed to shake the very foundations of the cave itself. When standing upright, it towered above us, its head nearly colliding with the roof.

"What the actual fuck is that thing?!" Klein shouted, having already drawn his katana out of its sheath.

"That, my friends, is the NEW Field Boss of the Second Floor!" Argo laughed, somehow managing to sound cheerful even in such a life-threatening situation.

 _They changed it from the beta?_ I immediately thought to myself, staring in awe at the monstrous creature in front of us. The lizard's skin was light brown, with large chunks of rock attached to it in various places, no doubt acting as armor against Sword Skills and attacks. Enormous teeth protruded from its mouth, like giant, rocky blades threatening to crush anyone that came within its reach. Four health bars appeared above its head as it eyed us with great ferocity, including its name in a bold, highlighted font:

" **Krom the Rockcrawler"**

It was a downright terrifying thing to face, and I inwardly cursed myself for agreeing to participate in this suicide mission in the first place.

"You see those rocky things attached to its skin? Those are armored points, they are resistant to attacks and will crush the durability of your weapons, so try aiming at exposed skin instead!" Argo shouted out, claws materializing on her hands.

_Ah, so that's what she fights with._

Shrieking once again, the lizard suddenly darted forwards at surprising speed, heading straight for the tiny Information Dealer. Lifting its massive arm, the monster threw itself towards her, aiming to cut her apart with its enormous claws. The feline-like player avoided the attack, however, by somersaulting directly beneath the approaching limb, coming out on the other side with a grin plastered on her face.

Seizing the opportunity, I shook myself out of the fear-induced trance and ran straight towards the giant monster, raising my one-handed sword in preparation for a Sword Skill. Feeling the System Assist kicking in, I surrendered myself to its guidance and let the Skill activate, cutting a deep blue line into the side of the lizards belly that splashed warm blood across the floor.

This served as a wake-up call to my other party members, who all honed in on the monster and unleashed Sword Skills of their own. This type of back and forth fighting continued for some time, with Argo pulling aggro and evading the attacks whilst we focused on dealing as much damage as we could to its weak spots. Since we didn't have any tanks, Argo was pretty much the only one keeping its attention so the rest of us were free to use our Skills. This put extra weight on her shoulders, of course, but the nimble little girl seemed to be doing just fine as she deftly dodged attack after attack, only suffering minor damage from the hellish onslaught.

When we finally managed to deplete the lizards' second health bar, it suddenly stopped moving completely, taking all of us by surprise. Standing there with its jaws wide open, we watched in suspense as the monster let out a high-pitched shriek that made our ears ring and our vision blurry. Right after the shriek ended, a small icon appeared over our health bars, indicating that we had all just received a debuff to our hearing.

Someone in our party tried to shout something, but it came out as nothing but a faded whisper to the rest of us. The debuff sure was effective.

Then, just when we thought things could not get any worse, we felt a fresh wave of tremors rolling through the ground beneath us, putting us all on edge as we desperately scanned our surroundings. All around us, smaller, almost miniature versions of the Field Boss started pouring out from fresh cracks in the walls, all of them accompanied by their own health bars. I counted twelve just off the top of my head.

Without saying a word, all of us immediately turned our attention away from the Field Boss and towards the new threat. The smaller mobs would have to be dealt with before we could go back to finishing off the now even more furious Krom. Sending her a pleading look, I made eye contact with Argo from across the room, and she instantly understood what it was I wanted from her. She had to keep the Field Boss's attention on her own whilst we fought off the smaller ones. It was a daunting task to be sure, but I wouldn't have looked to her if I didn't think she could manage it. Replying with that signature grin of hers, she returned her focus to the biggest threat in the room, the giant lizard, and made a show of baring her surprisingly sharp teeth in a display of anger and challenge.

_This is going to be a tough fight..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that brings us to the end of yet another chapter. I tried to keep a more light tone throughout this one, as the last chapter turned out rather dark and serious. I also introduced a plethora of new characters that are going to be playing vital roles in the story moving forward. I really do hope you like my portrayal of Argo the Rat in particular, as I find her hilariously fun to write and just a joy to interact with.


	4. Krom the Rockcrawler

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

Killing off the smaller lizards turned out to be a lot harder than I had expected. The sly creatures kept ducking, dodging and weaving away from all of our attacks, only rushing in to bite us in the cooldown period that followed using a Sword Skill. My usually black coat was covered in spots of blood now, blood that belonged both to the monsters I had managed to slay and to myself. Despite being a virtual world, the lizards' bites still stung like a bitch, and bled equally as much. The blood would naturally disintegrate relatively fast, but why Kayaba had felt the need to implement a bleeding mechanic in the first place was beyond me.

Meanwhile, in the corner of my eye, I could see Argo's health bar gradually dropping lower and lower, before finally hitting the yellow zone.

"Guys, this isn't working!" I shouted out, deflecting a jumping lizard with the broadside of my sword.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock!" Marco responded somewhere to my right, equally as occupied with his own set of attackers. "But what do you want us to do?! They just… keep… coming…"

"I have an idea," Asuna piped up, finishing off her opponent with a flurry of quick jabs. She seemed to be having the least amount of trouble with this, at least compared to us. "If we form a circle and force _them_ to come to _us_ , one can pull the aggro whilst the other standing next to him can attack from the side."

"That…" Marco wheezed through gritted teeth, finally managing to cut the head off the lizard he had been fighting for the past two minutes. "Is actually a great idea and I wish I had thought of that myself."

"You're welcome," Asuna replied with a smile, working her way through the sea of mobs towards Klein and me. "Just get your ass over here."

It didn't take long before we were all standing back-to-back, facing the onslaught as a team instead of as individual fighters. The lizards responded to this by circling around us looking for openings, hunger and primal rage shining in their eyes.

"So what now?" Klein asked, swinging his katana in a threatening motion towards a lone lizard that dared venture a little too close to our group. "Are we just gonna stand here and wait for them to attack us?"

"Pretty much," Asuna chimed nonchalantly. "But if you have a better idea, feel free to speak up."

"Okay, we could totally do… ehh… we could like… hmm…" he stammered, desperately trying to come up with a better plan right there on the spot.

"We could what?"

"We could… Ahh, you know what, forget it. We'll go with your plan. Thinking never really was my strong suit."

Luckily enough for us, it didn't take very long before Asuna's plan started to produce some results. The lizards had apparently grown tired of waiting at this point, and one of them decided to take his chances and throw himself at us. Needless to say, he didn't get very far. As soon as he got close to Marco, Klein stepped in from the side and impaled him on the tip of his katana, effectively turning the poor creature into a rather grotesque form of kebab.

"Hey, that actually worked…" Klein muttered, genuine surprise coloring his features.

"Of course it worked, it was my plan," Asuna grunted back, pushing another lizard off her just in time for me to step in and deliver a finishing blow.

"Uhhm guys, not to be a total party pooper or anything, but could you perhaps speed things up a little? I'm kinda dying over here!" Argo suddenly shouted, drawing our attention towards her instead. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the condition she was in.

There were streaks of blood running down her cheeks, and I spotted several gaping wounds marring her otherwise slender body. Her left eye had swollen shut, and most of her armor had been destroyed or ripped apart. A huge claw mark went across her forehead, dripping blood into her eyes every now and then.

A quick look at her health bar told me she was about to enter the red zone, which signalized a clear need to switch her out of combat so she could heal.

"Asuna, switch with her!" I shouted out after having done some quick calculations at the top of my head. "You're the player with the highest Agility stats after Argo! Grab the boss's attention for as long as you can, we'll help you out when we're done with these!"

"Got it!" she replied; already well on her way towards the grievously wounded information dealer.

Sadly, she didn't get very far.

The Field Boss had apparently grown tired of being kited around the arena like some sort of puppy, as he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and stood up on his hind legs. Judging it to be yet another sound attack, all of us instantly covered our ears to prevent the debuff. But to our great surprise, that was exactly what the Boss wanted us to do.

As soon as we had our hands over our ears, the giant lizard shot back into motion, heading straight for Asuna with newfound fury. Before the poor girl even had a chance to react, an enormous claw shot out and connected with her lower torso, sending her flying towards a nearby wall and taking a big chunk out of her health bar. A deafening crash and the sound of broken bones filled our eardrums as her frail body smashed ruthlessly into the hard stone, the impact causing huge cracks to shoot out across the wall.

For a moment, nothing happened. We were all frozen still by the shock of seeing one of our comrades so brutally maimed. Then Marco suddenly spoke up.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Asuna!"

His shout served as a wake up call to the rest of us, and barely a second later, we were all rushing towards her unmoving body. Even Argo, who only had about 15 percent of her health left, was coming to help.

"Klein, Marco, form a circle around us and keep the lizards at bay! We'll check on Asuna!" I yelled, my brain going into overdrive as my adrenaline levels spiked. It was kind of surprising, to be honest. In real life, I had never been much of a leader. I had always tended to say as little as possible, remain as hidden as I could. But faced with a life-or-death scenario, my insecurities seemed to fly straight out the window.

With synchronized movements, my comrades followed my commands with robot-like precision, as if the notion of taking orders had been ingrained in their skulls since childbirth. It all just sort of… clicked. Everyone knew what they needed to do. What the group required of them.

Klein and Marco took up positions, standing shoulder to shoulder, fighting off waves of mobs as we knelt down and tried to wake up Asuna. She was unresponsive.

 _Dammit, just what we fucking needed. An unconscious party member,_ I thought to myself as I watched Argo desperately trying to shake Asuna back to life. _How the hell are we supposed to make it out of here now? Think, Kirito, think…_

Surveying my surroundings, I suddenly spotted something that I had previously overlooked about the arena. There were stalagmites hanging from the ceiling. And they were hanging low enough for someone to potentially knock them down.

_You have got to be kidding me… How didn't I notice that before now?!_

"Argo, look!" I said, pointing towards the low-hanging rocky spikes. "See those stalagmites? They are conveniently placed, aren't they?"

A brief smile flashed across her lips as her eyes followed my finger to where the rocks were, her entire stance shifting ever so slightly.

"Right you are, Kii-boy! Want me to knock them down for you?" she asked, already opening her inventory to grab a health potion.

"Very much so," I responded, readying my sword to unleash a Sword Skill.

"Alright, just give me the word and…"

Before she even managed to finish her sentence, I activated my 4-part combo skill, " **Whirling Tornado** ", and let the System Assist guide me towards the nearest enemy. The attack took the unsuspecting lizard by complete surprise, resulting in me cleaving straight through it with the first swing, and finishing off two others behind it with the last three.

"NOW!"

Argo darted forwards without pause, rushing straight towards me with a wide grin plastered on her face. Getting down on one knee, I let Argo use my back as a springboard, pushing upwards at the exact moment her foot connected with my torso. The tiny girl flew through the air with impressive finesse, her trajectory lining up perfectly with the nearest stalagmite. But instead of just kicking it down, like I had suspected she would, she pointed one of her claws at it, and activated an unknown Sword Skill.

The claw suddenly detached from her hand, and automatically shot forwards like an arrow. The speed was so intense that it actually cleaved straight through the current rock, and continued on to knock down two other stalagmites behind it as well. The Skill finally ended with a flash of blue light, signalizing an item reaching the end of its durability and breaking apart.

The first stalagmite to fall hit empty ground, and did no damage. But the second one landed smack in the middle of the lizard group, instantly killing three and injuring one. And finally, the last stalagmite connected directly with the Field Boss's head, puncturing the skull and burying itself deep into the creature's brain. Needless to say, the giant lizard was dead before it even had a chance to register what was happening.

We watched in awe as Krom the Rockcrawler broke apart into a million tiny fragments, and a trumpet sound filled the cave.

**CONGRATULATIONS!**

A collective sigh went through our party as we fell to our knees in exhaustion.

_We made it. We didn't die._

"That…" Klein started, leaning on his katana for support. "Was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."

"Yeah, note to self: don't try to kill Field Bosses with only one party. The only reason we're still alive right now is because we're at Floor 2. Once we get higher up, the monsters get a lot tougher," Marco added, sheathing his sword and wiping the sweat from his forehead. It was actually impressive that sweat even was a thing in this world. The amount of data required to simulate realistic water physics must be huge. Who in their right mind would waste precious computing power by implementing a sweating mechanic?

"I told you it was a bad idea," I chimed in, shaking my head in exasperation.

"But hey, we made it out okay, didn't we?" Marco smiled.

"Yeah, but just barely…"

"…"

"No point in crying over spilled milk boys, what's done is done!" Argo suddenly said, walking over to us after force-feeding Asuna's unconscious body with a health potion. "The only thing you can do is accept it and move on. Now though, it's time for everyone's favorite part of any MMO: checking out the loot."

"Ohhh, good point…" I mumbled, hastily bringing up the rewards window. A quick look at the specifics told me I had received an impressive amount of Col, combined with enough EXP to push me all the way to Level 9.

_Only a few more levels and I should be strong enough to take on the Floor Boss…_

"Did anyone get any sick drops?" Marco asked, scrolling through his rewards with a disappointed look on his face. "I didn't get anything..."

"Me neither," Klein sighed, closing his window.

"Nothing here," I added.

"I did!" Argo yelled, equipping her new piece of equipment at light speed. It was a relatively short, brown leather cloak, with what appeared to be small chiseled rocks sewn into the material. "It's called **[** **Krom's Gift]** and gives me a significant buff to Agility and Defense! Just what I need!"

"Aww man, lucky you… I didn't get squat," Marco mumbled, kicking away a stray rock with his feet in a show of childish petulance.

"Hey, no need to be mad about it! There's always next time!"

"That… really doesn't make me feel any better about it, but thanks? I guess?"

"You're welcome!"

"Still though," I interjected, cutting off their conversation. "We need to find a way out of here. I dunno about you, but I don't particularly feel like being stuck down here until we eventually die of starvation…"

"Kii-boy has a point!" Argo smiled. "Now that the Boss is dead, an exit should have appeared somewhere in this room. All we gotta do now is find it!"

And so we spread out, searching every nook and cranny of the room for signs of an exit, until we at last rendezvoused in the middle of the chamber again.

"Did anyone find anything?" I asked, stroking my chin in contemplation like I had seen the hero character do in movies a thousand times over.

"Nope, nothing here."

"Didn't find anything."

"I came up short as well."

"Well that's just perfect…"

A moment of silence passed then, with all of us trying our hardest to think of a solution to our little problem.

"I mean, the answer is probably something incredibly obvious, and we're just too stupid to think of it," Argo sighed, stretching her arms over her head.

"Hmmm…"

Taking one last look around, I suddenly noticed something that I (in hindsight) probably shouldn't have been able to miss. The lone ray of sunlight was back, shining through the hole in the roof.

"Hey guys…" I started, leaving our little circle to walk towards the beam. My companions all turned around with confused looks on their faces to see what it was I was doing. "I think I might have an idea…"

The others watched in silence as I slowly approached the ray of sunlight, my right hand outstretched in front of me.

Taking a deep breath, I let my instincts guide me, and thrust my hand right into the trajectory of the beam. The second it was exposed to the light, a loud banging sound erupted from somewhere behind me.

We didn't even have to turn around to know what had happened.

A door had appeared. Our way out.

* * *

**Floor 2 - Town of Urbus**

It was already late into the evening hours by the time we finally made it through the gates of Urbus. The trek back had taken significantly longer than any of us had anticipated, with our party being attacked by wild monsters pretty much every 20 meters. The spawn rate for mobs was drastically higher during the night, after all, resulting in twice the amount of encounters. But luckily enough, due to the EXP boost we got from killing the Field Boss, all of us were higher levelled than the monsters, and thus we made short progress of them.

"Damn, I am beat…" Marco puffed, leaning over to catch his breath once the "Safe Zone" notification appeared on our HUDs. "Great work today, everyone."

"Remind me to never go along with any of your plans ever again," I sighed back, opening up my menu to sort through my inventory. "That battle was a little too close for comfort. Next time we might not get so lucky."

"Ahh, come on, Kirito! Don't be such a buzzkill! We made it out, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters!"

"Hey, I'm just saying that we should probably try to be more careful in the future. We only get one shot at this whole thing, after all…"

The mood darkened considerably at that, and a pang of guilt flooded through me. I didn't want to be the one who constantly dragged the others down with my negative attitude.

"Anyway…" I said in an attempt to switch topics. "I think I'm gonna call it a night. I need to get some food and catch some sleep, so I guess I will see you guys… later?"

To be honest, I wasn't really sure **if** I was going to see them later. Our plan had been to meet up to take down the Field Boss, and now that that was over and done with, there wasn't a huge reason for us to stick together anymore. Despite the obvious safety benefits of playing as a group and the whole "you die in the game, you die in real life" thing, SAO was still an MMO at its core, meaning that competition was a natural part of it. Everybody wanted to get the best gear and rarest drops to ensure their own survival, and that got considerably harder the more people you had in your group. More manpower also meant more competition for the same loot, and when everyone wanted a piece of the action, it could be hard to figure out who deserved what gear and why. Most Guilds solved this issue by simply stating that "whoever gets the drop, keeps it", essentially choosing to utilize a traditional finders-keepers system, but that wouldn't really be the optimal solution in a party where 2 out of 5 members were frontliners (people ahead of the curve in terms of levels and equipment) that needed constant upgrades to keep up with the rest of their peers.

"Good idea, Kii-boy! I could really use a good night's rest right about now! But we should probably add each other to our Friends Lists first, so that our messages carry across all Floors and not just the current one," Argo smiled, leaning from side to side to stretch out her back.

A round of approving nods surged through our little group, and before long, we had all added each other as Friends. The Relationship System in SAO pretty much required you to add those you would like to keep in contact with to your friends list if you wanted to message them. The system basically "placed" your relationship with your fellow players into one of four different stages: strangers, friends, guild comrades and married. If you were classified as "strangers" by the system, you could not see each other's name and level, and only send each other messages of short length that did not go across Floors (the message would only be received by the recipient if the player was on the same Floor as the sender). If you were classified as "Friends", on the other hand, most of these restrictions disappeared, and you could also see each other's location on the map.

Guild comrades were pretty much the same as being Friends, just with the added benefit of a slight increase to your stats, and a shared Guild inventory. Married on the other hand… well, as far as I knew, nobody had even gotten married yet, so it was kind of hard to tell. Considering the huge difference in male to female player numbers, I had a sinking feeling nobody would be getting married anytime soon either.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I could really do with a beer right about now," Klein smirked, probably already imagining the taste and sensation in his head.

"I don't get why you would want something like that though. As far as I know, you can't actually get drunk in SAO, right?" Asuna asked, furrowing her brows in thought. "And it's not like beer is known for its great taste…"

"Well, no, you can't get drunk, but I still find the act of cracking open a cold one calming. Back in the real world, I used to be… somewhat of an alcoholic, you see, and still being able to enjoy a cold beer in this world has really helped me accept it more… somehow," Klein muttered, none of us really surprised at the news that he used to be a drunkard. He just sort of gave off that vibe, with his wacky, unkept hair and stubbly beard.

"Huh… Well, I guess I can understand that…" I sighed in response, shooting a quick look up at the digital watch in the top right corner of my field of view. It showed the number 22.35, indicating that it was indeed quite late in the evening.

"Anyhow, we should probably disband the group for now," Marco said, opening up his menu and maneuvering to the Group tab. "We're probably going to run into one another soon enough anyway, considering that we're all stuck on the same Floor."

"True that," Klein grunted, running a hand through his red hair. "Plus, I imagine we'll all be present for the raid on the Floor Boss, once the Labyrinth here has been conquered."

"Well, considering all the EXP we got from slaying that Field Boss, I reckon most of us are already at a decent enough level to be able to take part in it," I agreed, inwardly shuddering at the thought of having to participate in such an event. The idea of facing off against the toughest enemy of the Floor was rather terrifying, after all.

"My thoughts exactly," Klein responded, turning to face me as he talked. "It would be kind of a dick move of us to take all of the resources from the Field Boss for ourselves without using some of it to help the other players with the big baddy of this Floor."

"I suppose you are right," Asuna nodded, her chestnut hair swaying slightly in the wind as she did so. "I helped out last time, so I might as well help out this time as well."

"Good to hear. Well, I'm gonna head off now. I'll see you guys later," Klein finally said, spinning around on his heels and walking away from our little group. It was actually kind of sad to see him go, as I had gotten used to the thought of being in a party with him. His witty, dry humor really brightened up the mood, after all.

"I'll follow his lead and head off too then," Marco smiled, waving us goodbye as he disappeared into the silent streets of Urbus.

"Seeing as everyone is leaving, I guess I better leave as well. Nice meeting ya in real life, Kii-boy!" Argo piped, already well on her way towards the nearest tavern. That only left me and Asuna, standing alone in the empty square.

"Well…" I finally coughed after a couple of seconds of awkward silence. "I think I'm gonna head off and find myself something to eat then. I'm positively famished after that little excursion."

"Oh, that sounds nice… Mind if I tag along?" Asuna replied, shifting her head ever so slightly to the right. "I'm not totally familiar with the layout of this town yet, but you seem to know your way around."

The question took me by complete surprise and left me at a loss for words. She wanted to… join me? To find something to eat? Just the two of us? Alone?

"Ehhh… uhh… yeah, I guess. Feel free to come along… if you want to, that is."

"Thanks."

Seeing her smile beaming at me, I had little choice but to accept her request to tag along and bring her with me. And so the two of us set off towards the center of town, with me leading the way.

* * *

"Wow, this place looks really fancy!" Asuna gasped as she inspected the restaurant I had stopped in front of. "No wonder you wanted to come here."

"Yeah, I suppose it is a beautiful place," I admitted, taking a moment to appreciate the delicate architecture of the building. Like most buildings in Urbus, it was made out of the same grey rock material that was commonly found in these mountains, but what set this particular building apart from the rest was that this one had been carefully decorated with wooden signs and beautiful rock carvings. Great care and dedication had gone into making the place look as charming as possible, the sight of it significantly more pleasing to the eye than the rest of the city.

"Let's go inside, shall we?" I offered, walking up to the door and holding it open for Asuna. Despite my background as an anti-social shut-in, I had played enough dating sims to know that you were supposed to do stuff like this for girls if you wanted them to like you. The act didn't go unnoticed either, as Asuna sent me a warm smile as she walked past me into the building.

 _Hey, maybe this won't be so bad after all_ , I thought to myself as I closed the door behind me, following her into the warm light of the restaurant.


	5. A Shocking Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

**Floor 2 – "The Taurus's Hammer" - Town of Urbus**

The restaurant I had taken us to was one of my favorites on this Floor. It was called "The Taurus's Hammer" and featured an extensive menu that included dishes such as Farfalle with Yogurt and Zucchini and Quinoa Enchilada Casserole. Its interior was tastefully decorated with mahogany furniture and candle-lit tabletops, giving it a cabin-esque and cozy feel.

After Sword Art Online went from being a fun and amazing experience to a horrifying game of death, one of the few things that had helped keep me sane was food. One of the few benefits to living in a virtual reality was that no matter how much food you ate, your physical shape and form would never change. In other words, it was literally impossible to get fat. This meant that you could, in theory, stuff your face with as much food as you could afford, and never turn overweight.

And, as if that wasn't enough, most restaurants were dirt-cheap compared to the real world, with only the most extensive of meals costing more than 100 to 500 Col. The waiting time in said restaurants were great as well, as the NPC chefs all had their Cooking skill maxed out, allowing for lightning speed preparation of the meals.

Following Asuna deeper into the restaurant, I was surprised to see more than a few other players spread out across the room. When I had first eaten here after arriving at the Second Floor for the first time, the place had been completely empty. But that certainly wasn't the case anymore.

"This seems like a good spot," Asuna suddenly piped up, stopping in front of a table in the northwest corner of the room. It was nothing special, just a simple wooden construction with a grey and black tablecloth covering its surface, but it still had a certain rustic charm over it.

Getting seated at the table, it didn't take long for an NPC waitress to approach us, asking for our order.

"Hmm… I'll have the… Spinach Tortellini Chicken Salad with a bowl of… fried potatoes as a side," I answered, maneuvering my way through the menu with ease, seeing as I had been here multiple times before and already knew what I liked and didn't like.

"Noted. And what about you, Miss?" the NPC nodded, turning to face Asuna instead.

"Hmm, I don't know… What do you suggest, Kirito?"

"Hm? Oh… you're asking me for a recommendation? Are you sure?" I hesitated, shooting the menu a skeptical look.

"You said this was your favorite restaurant, so who better to tell me what to get and what to avoid," she retorted matter-of-factly, her eyes reflecting the light of the candle in front of us.

"Ahh, I suppose you have a point… Well then, what to choose… Hmm… Perhaps this one?" I muttered to myself, racing through the different options at mach 2 speed. It was surprisingly hard to choose now that I was no longer picking only for myself.

"Yes, okay, she will have the… Prosciutto Pasta Chicken Skillet with a side of sweet potato fries."

"Noted. Your estimated wait time is… 7 minutes. Thanks for eating with us at "The Taurus's Hammer"!"

Speeding away just as quickly as she had arrived, the NPC waitress headed for the kitchen to pass our orders along to the chefs. Meanwhile, I was left alone at the table with a female (that wasn't my sister) for the first time in years.

"Uhh… so…" I awkwardly started, not quite sure where to look. "Nice place, right?"

_God damn I'm such an idiot._

"Yeah, I like it! It's simplistic, but carries with it a certain charm. I'm definitely going to be eating here more often," Asuna replied, her eyes scanning the interior with newfound interest.

"Ahh… that's good to hear. I'm not gonna lie, I… got a little nervous when you said you'd join me. I'm used to only looking out for myself, after all…" I continued, scratching the back of my head as I tried to calm down my beating heart.

"Oh yeah, I could totally tell," Asuna laughed in response, instantly shutting down my train of thought.

"Wait… you knew?!"

"Yeah. I mean, it WAS pretty obvious," she smiled, looking rather satisfied with herself. "You did kinda… I don't know, visibly recoil when I asked to join you."

Letting out a nervous sigh, I met her eyes with my own in a display of fake confidence, inwardly freaking out at my own ignorance. Was I really that bad around women?

"Well excuse me for not exactly being the personification of bravery itself," I half-heartedly joked, putting up a semi-petulant face as I talked. "I am, after all, enough of a hardcore gamer to be stuck in this world in the first place, so that fact alone should speak miles about my social abilities. Plus, it's not like this game has a Charisma stat I can grind."

Laughing at my sarcasm, Asuna shook her head in a reassuring manner before answering my snarky comment.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I am not accusing you of anything here. In fact, I thought it was a little cute."

"Huuuuh?"

My mind grinding to a halt as her words registered in my brain, I absentmindedly let slip a non-intelligible sound in response to her statement. She thought my nervousness was cute? She found insecurity in guys CUTE?! SHE FOUND **ME** CUTE?!

_I NEED TO MARRY THIS WOMAN._

Asuna, however, simply kept on giggling as I fought an internal battle to regain control over my own thoughts.

"A… anyways… How come a girl like you ended up in a situation like this? Forgive me for being blunt, but you don't strike me as the type of person to spend hours of your life playing video games and min-maxing characters in MMOs?"

Choosing to distance myself from the part of me that was imagining my future life with this woman, I decided to try my luck at getting an answer to the one burning question that had been haunting my mind ever since I ran into this girl earlier today. Just how was it that a "chick" like her was stuck in a game like this?

"Riiiight, I guess that was bound to come up at some point," she sighed, drawing her mouth into a strict line. "Well, I suppose you could say that it was a cruel twist of fate. I wasn't actually planning on playing SAO at all, to begin with. I hardly knew what it was when I first put on the NerveGear."

"Oh? Then… how come you are here right now?"

"That's… actually my brother's fault. He had been talking about the game non-stop leading up to its release, and how excited he was to finally try out a proper VRMMO. I didn't personally understand WHY he was so over the moon about it, but I could tell that it was something that mattered a lot to him. Sadly, once release day finally came around, he was dragged in for work and couldn't play. So, seeing as I had nothing better to do at the time, and with the future of VR technology literally laying right there on his bed, I decided to take a shot at it and plugged myself into his NerveGear… Oh, if only I had known…"

Putting on a pained smile, she tried to keep her tone light and cheerful, but the heaviness of her words betrayed the true feelings behind the façade. Not that I could blame her for that. I was a gamer to begin with, and even I regretted putting on the NerveGear that fateful Friday afternoon.

"Ahh… So you took his spot in the game out of curiosity then," I finally muttered after a minute of silence, thinking back to my own experience on launch day.

"Yeah, pretty much… It was… bad. The first couple of days, I mean. I kinda… shut down, I think. I dunno, I can't remember it all too well, despite it happening only a couple of weeks ago. The notion of being stuck in this world I knew nothing about… it was just too much for me. My brain couldn't handle it, I guess…"

The silence returned, only to be broken by me yet again only moments later.

"So… what changed? What made you snap out of it?"

"Oh… Klein did."

"Klein?"

"Yeah, Klein. I was walking down the streets of the Town of Beginnings one day, and just so happened to overhear him talking to some of his friends about a quest he wanted to do that would take them outside of the city walls. It was obvious even to an unexperienced player like myself that he had no idea what he was talking about, as he constantly contradicted himself and kept getting the details wrong, but the way he spoke… It was just so… full of confidence. Like he was 100 percent convinced that he wasn't going to die. That everything was going to be okay."

"Wow…" I breathed in response, inwardly a little jealous of Klein for managing to pull Asuna's attention so thoroughly with his extreme confidence and backwards knowledge of the game.

"Yeah, it was just what I needed at the time. For someone to tell me that it was going to be all right… For someone to be strong for me. So I approached him and his group, and asked if I could join. At first, they were surprised, but ultimately I ended up joining their group. And since then, I've been friends with all of them."

"That… sounds pretty great, actually," I sighed, leaning back in my chair and looking up at the rocky ceiling. "I only wish I had met you guys sooner. I was in a dark place for a long time myself, until I met Marco. His carefree attitude and complete lack of regard for his own safety kinda just… pulled me out of my hole, I guess."

Chuckling at my description of Marco, Asuna brushed back a stray lock of hair before opening her mouth to speak. But, to our surprise, she was interrupted by the NPC waitress returning with our food. In the midst of our conversation, we had completely forgotten about the fact that we were at a restaurant, and that we had even ordered food in the first place.

"Oh…Thanks a lot," I said, nodding courteously to the NPC as she placed the dish I had ordered on the table in front of me. "My compliments to the chef, as always."

"This looks absolutely delicious!" Asuna gasped, prodding the pasta on her plate with a fork. "I love Italian food! Thanks for the recommendation, Kirito."

"Any time."

We ate our food mostly in silence, savoring the taste and enjoying the presence of each other's company. It was moments like these that made it all worth it. Those moments when you got to just sit down and enjoy a nice meal in a fantasy world of swords and monsters. It wasn't every day you got to go from slaying a mythological beast at two o'clock to eating a warm meal at eleven, after all.

Once we had finished our meals, we paid for our food at the counter and headed out into the cold streets of Urbus. The watch in the top right corner of my field of view displayed the numbers 00.41, indicating that it was well past midnight. Somehow, we had spent almost two hours in that restaurant, just enjoying our meal and talking to each other.

"Well, I think it's about time we split up for the evening. It's almost 1 o'clock, and I've got an early day tomorrow. I have this quest in my quest log that I've been dying to finish for the past couple of days, you see," I yawned, stretching my hands over my head as I talked.

"Understandable. So I guess this is where we say good bye then, at least for now," Asuna responded, already opening her menu to pull up a map of the town. She was no doubt planning her route back to her inn, and considering her earlier statement of not being totally familiar with the layout of the town yet, it made sense that she would use the map to find her way.

"Yeah. Good night, Asuna. I… had a good time tonight. I hope we get to do this again some day.!

"Aww, thanks. I had a great time as well! I'll be sure to contact you if I'm ever in the area! You're in my Friends List now, after all," she smiled in return.

"Totally. Alright, see you later then!"

"See you!"

Turning away from her and towards the inn I was renting a room at, a singular thought occupied my mind as I walked through the now deserted streets of the town of Urbus:

_Goddammit, friendzoned again._

* * *

**Floor 2 – Second Floor Labyrinth**

Using the broadside of my sword as a shield, I deflected the Humanoid Taurus's hammer to the side, a shower of sparks erupting from the blow. Utilizing the narrow recovery period that followed every NPC's attack to my advantage, I allowed myself to slip into the System Assist, unleashing a two-hit Sword Skill that cleaved the monsters' arm straight from its torso. With blood spurting out from where its arm had once been, the Taurus let out an ear-piercing howl of pain before bowing down to charge at me with its horns. Unlucky for the Taurus, though, I had already predicted this attack to be the next move, and simply side-stepped my way out of the charge zone before slashing my sword across its back as it came running past me. That turned out to be the killing blow too, as the monsters' body exploded into thousands of tiny fragments, floating in the air before disappearing forever.

 _Whew… 10 down, only 5 more to go…_ I thought to myself as I took a look at the floating rewards window that had appeared where the monster used to be. 102 Col, huh? That wasn't too bad, considering the fact that that we were still on the Second Floor of Aincrad where the mobs weren't too hard to beat.

_If I keep this up, I might just be able to afford that new leather coat I've been eyeing at the Tailor Shop…_

I wasn't allowed to ponder over this for long, however, as a second "Humanoid Taurus" spawned in right behind me, immediately pulling aggro. Letting out a sigh, I turned around to face my new enemy, a newfound sense of determination radiating throughout me.

It had been a couple of days since my dinner date with Asuna (okay so it probably wasn't a date, but I liked to refer to it that way) and since then, a lot of things had happened. I had hit Level 10, finished up most of the quests surrounding Urbus and its neighboring village Marome, and headed into the Second Floor Labyrinth. The Assault Team had made good progress on it by now, and most expected that it was only a matter of time before the Boss Room was found. Despite contributing to the clearing process, I didn't consider myself to be a part of the frontline group. I rarely partied up with others, after all, and chose to stick mostly to myself as I worked my way through the lower levels of the labyrinth. It was tough work, having no one to pull aggro and Switch with, but I actually preferred it that way. Combat was easier to handle when you only had yourself to look out for.

Slashing open the second Taurus' throat, I watched with detached interest as the monsters' body dissolved into fragments, absentmindedly noting the rewards I got for defeating it. These Taurus's were getting easier and easier to beat now, as my experience in dealing with them grew with each fight. They had rather predictable attack patterns, and low amounts of hit points. Sure, getting pummeled by their hammers DID hurt like a bitch, but the pain would quickly fade as long as you didn't allow yourself to be hit multiple times in the same spot.

Just as I was finishing off the last of the 5 Humanoid Taurus's for my quest, I heard a foreign sound coming from somewhere up ahead. At first, I couldn't quite place it, but once the sound returned for a second time, I realized what it was: a scream. Now normally, I would've just brushed this off as the sound of other players engaged in a fight with a monster, but something about the way he screamed made me reconsider. It didn't sound like the battle cry of a player victoriously finishing off his enemy. It sounded like the scream of someone on the brink of death, crying out in genuine fear.

Hurrying down the pathway, I followed the sound of screaming further into the labyrinth. It didn't take me long to arrive at the origin point, and after rounding a corner, I saw something that shocked me down to my very core.

The screaming was coming from a player. But said player wasn't fighting monsters. He was fighting another player.

My mind kicking into overdrive, I tried to make sense of the situation in front of me. Two players fighting? But why? There wasn't any Duel notification floating in the air, meaning that it was a World PvP fight not controlled by the system. This wasn't a match that had been pre-arranged. The two players were genuinely trying to kill each other.

Shooting a quick look at the screaming players' opposition, my heart skipped a beat as I noticed the color of his cursor. It was red. Meaning that the other player (the one who wasn't screaming) had already killed someone. And that this guy (the screaming one) was most likely his next target.

_A PK'er?_

A mixture of fear, adrenalin and anxiety flooded my veins as I watched the two players go at it. The screaming player seemed to be losing the fight, as his HP bar was bordering dangerously close on entering the red zone. The other one seemed to be enjoying this, his face carrying a crooked smile with eyes that betrayed the madness within. This was, without a sliver of a doubt, an attempted PK. And judging by the color of his cursor, the smiling player had already succeeded in killing someone before.

My body frozen still by a whirlpool of emotions, I could do nothing but watch as the fight continued, with the PK'ers smile growing wider every time the screaming players' HP bar dropped.

_What the fuck are you doing?! HELP HIM! DO SOMETHING!_

I desperately tried to make my petrified body move, but to no avail. I was in a state of complete shock, my mind refusing to acknowledge the situation in front of me. Why would someone want to kill a member of the Assault Team? Why would anyone purposefully stunt the progress of the game by a removing an important member of the frontline group?

Then finally, after what felt like an eternity, the PK'er seemingly grew tired of toying with his food. Deflecting a wild strike from the screaming player, he looped his sword back around and stabbed his target in the stomach. The sword went clean through his armor, and protruded out the back of his torso. A gush of blood spilled from where the sword had entered his body, coloring the arm of the PK'er red, and his screams were silenced as pain flooded his every nerve. And then, after a couple of seconds, he exploded, leaving nothing behind except for a plethora of floating fragments.

_No…_

Meanwhile, my blood froze to ice in my veins as I watched him die, the PK'er screaming out a mocking laughter that echoed far into the labyrinth. I had just witnessed someone get killed right in front of me, and done nothing to stop it from happening. I had stood there and watched as an innocent player lost his life to a madman, without helping him.

_No…_

_I…_

_What…_

_No…_

_NO…_

I could feel my sanity slipping, my mind looping in circles as my heartbeat gradually rose in intensity. Nothing made sense anymore. Rationality flew out the window. Logic was replaced by anger and adrenaline, and sheer, unbridled **rage** filled my thoughts. A veil of red descended upon my vision as every fiber of my being called out for revenge. This anger would not be contained, would not be controlled. It wanted nothing more than to kill, kill and then kill some more. This PK'er had awoken something within me that I never knew existed. Pure, unadulterated fury.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I screamed as I rushed forwards towards the unsuspecting player, who was now busy looking through his menu. Needless to say, he never stood a chance. My sword shining a deep shade of blue, I shot forwards like an arrow, hellbent on ending this man's existence. In the moments before my blade connected with his neck, I saw his eyes widening in surprise, surprise that was quickly replaced by fear, a feeling that he had most certainly not felt in a long time.

And then it was over. A loud thud resounded throughout the labyrinth as my sword cut straight through his neck tissue and separated the PK'ers head clean from his torso. A spurt of blood splashed across my face as I followed the Sword Skill through to completion, and as the Skill ended, the sound of a body hitting the floor filled my eardrums.

_Holy shit…_

_Holy fucking shit…_

Turning around on shaky legs, I dared take a look behind me at the death I had caused. And there, laying on the ground just a couple of meters away from me, was the now headless body of the PK'er, a pool of blood gathering around the area where his skull had once been. It didn't stay there for long, as it quickly dissolved into fragments mere seconds later, but the damage had already been done. The sight of it had been burnt into my retinas.

I immediately bent over and threw up all the contents of my virtual stomach, covering the labyrinth floor with yesterdays' dinner and todays' breakfast. I absentmindedly noted that it was weird that I was able to throw up at all, considering that this wasn't the real world and that every action in here would have to be programmed ahead of time. The only answer I could think of was that Kayaba Akihiko had somehow decided to program in the sensation and action of throwing up, for some outlandish reason beyond my understanding.

After successfully emptying myself of all the food in my system, I fell down to my knees, my brain desperately trying to process what had just happened. On some level, I understood what I had done. I had taken another person's life, and that was a burden that was going to follow me for the rest of my life. But a different part of me refused to accept this, and strived to suppress my memories of the event as quickly as it could.

It was in the midst of this that a new window appeared in front of me. I had never seen this particular screen before, and as such, even in my despair, it managed to pique my interest enough for me to look at it. Reading the first line, an eerie sense of foreboding washed over me.

**Kill Reward**

_What…? K… Kill Reward? What the hell is that?_

Looking down at the contents of the window, I was left speechless at what I saw. According to this, I had just received a massive Col and EXP boost for killing that player. It was more Col than I had ever received for killing a mob (including the Field Boss), and the EXP boost was enough to push me just up to Level 11, which was absolutely crazy considering how far away I had been from reaching said Level.

 _Sword Art_ Online… _rewards you… for killing other players?_

The thought of it alone made my entire being quake in fear, my brain short-circuiting at the realization of what this could lead to. If word got out that killing other players gave you massive rewards… well, the entire server could potentially fall into disarray. The number of Player-Killing Guilds would rise exponentially, and even the simple act of travelling from place to place on your own could turn into a potential death sentence.

_I need to tell the others about this._

This singular thought filled my mind as I looked down at the window in front of me, my mind still reeling from the thought of it all. This could NOT be made public knowledge. We could NOT give players an incentive to kill each other, especially now that death in the game meant death in the real world. The point of the game was to work together to get to the top floor. That could not be done if everyone was busy fighting each other instead.

Opening up my menu, I maneuvered over to the Friends List tab, and wrote up a quick message to each of the people on there. The message itself was relatively simple: in it, I urged everyone to meet up at a pre-determined location in Urbus as quickly as possible, citing "life-or-death stuff" as the reason why.

As soon as the messages had been sent, I took one last look back at the area in which I had killed a person for the first time, before setting course for the exit to the labyrinth. I had to tell the others about this. They needed to know.

_This death game just got a whole lot deadlier…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like this idea of PK-ing offering rewards instead of just punishments. I always felt like that whole system was sorely underdeveloped in the canon version of SAO, so I wanted to expand on it here and make it a bit more interesting for our heroes. I hope you found it interesting as well!


	6. Asterius the Taurus King

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

**Floor 2 – "Carrion's Rest" – Town of Urbus**

The atmosphere in the room was tense to say the least. Nobody dared say a word or even make a sound as I paced back and forth across the floor, my mind deep in thought. It had been roughly an hour since I had sent the original message in the labyrinth, and miraculously enough, all of the people who had received it had shown up. Although I felt slightly guilty for dragging them back from the frontlines this early in the day, I figured that what I had to say would make up for any lost progress this impromptu meeting might cost them.

"Alright, now that we are all gathered…" I suddenly said, stopping dead in my tracks and fixing each and every one of them with a serious look. "You are probably wondering why I called you here today."

"Yeah, you could say that," Klein muttered, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "I mean, it's not that I mind having a little friendly reunion, but you gotta admit, you didn't exactly set us up for a very festive mood by starting your message out with the sentence "we have to meet, life or death stuff"."

"Yeah, what was that all about?" Marco said, following Klein's example. "You'd think that something seriously bad has happened for you to send us a message like THAT."

"That's because something bad HAS happened, Marco," I sighed, leaning up against the wall behind me before continuing. "I've… discovered something… And I feel like you guys need to know about it."

"What did you find out, Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked, her voice steady and supporting despite the tense mood that hung over our little group.

"Well… there's really no easy way to say this, but…" I started, letting the sentence trail off before I dropped the metaphorical bomb that would forever change the way they viewed SAO.

"I killed someone."

The room instantly went dead silent. No one as much as breathed as their eyes gradually widened in shock. I couldn't really blame them though. I probably would have reacted the exact same way if someone told me they had murdered someone. SAO was a death game now after all, so killing another player essentially made you into a real life murderer.

"What… do you mean… you killed someone?" Asuna finally whispered, her entire body shivering slightly as she uttered those cursed words.

"I mean I killed someone, Asuna. There's no way to sugarcoat it. I ended another person's life, erasing them from both this world and the real one, and I am fucking terrified because of it," I replied, my voice breaking slightly at the end. The more I thought about it, the worse it felt. I had been the defining factor behind someone's death. I was the one who was responsible for the NerveGear frying their brain and taking their life. Even if one could argue that it was done in self-defense, that still didn't change the nature of the act. It was still horrible, no matter how you looked at it.

"But… WHY? Why would you do such a thing?!" Asuna cried, a hint of desperation entering her voice. "What reason could you possibly have had for killing another player?!"

And so I told them the story of how I had encountered the PK'er. Of how I had been exploring the labyrinth before hearing that shiver-inducing scream of terror, of how I had stood by and watched as an innocent player was murdered, and of how I had ultimately ended up taking the murderers life out of sheer rage. Once I was done, the others looked positively crestfallen. It was like they didn't know how to react, if they should feel sorry for me or hate my guts.

"I'm… sorry you had to go through that, Kii-boy…" Argo finally muttered, her face turned downwards to hide what I suspected was tears. "I can't say I would have reacted any differently if I was in your position…"

"Yes, I'm… sorry as well, Kirito-kun…" Asuna breathed, a single tear sliding down her cheek as she closed her eyes. "I was just so surprised when you told me you killed someone that I couldn't help but doubt you…"

"Hey, guys, it's okay. I don't blame you. If anything, I appreciate that you all take me seriously enough to come all the way back to Urbus just because I sent you a message," I answered, my hands held up in an apologetic manner. "But I'm afraid… I haven't even gotten to the worst part yet."

"What could possibly be worse than being forced to kill someone?" Klein asked, obvious sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Well… that's just it. The game… rewarded me for it…" I grimaced, reliving the moment when the pop-up screen had showed up in front of me.

"WHAT?" they all shouted out in unison, disbelief coloring their every feature.

"Yeah, it's bad… Once I had… successfully finished off the PK'er… the game presented me with a "Rewards" window unlike anything I've ever seen before. Not only did it reward me with a serious EXP boost, it also gave me a crazy amount of Col to boot. I'm talking more EXP and Col than we got from killing the Field Boss…" I sighed, opening up my menu and turning it around for the others to see. Once they got a good look at it, they all reacted in the exact same way: by pointing out the obvious difference.

"IT PUSHED YOU ALL THE WAY TO LEVEL 11?!"

"Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I didn't think it was even possible to hit such a high level this early in the game. Heck, the only way we even got to level 10 was because we practically solo'ed a Field Boss. Who would have thought that killing another player would reward you with that much experience?"

"This… this is absolutely ridiculous…" Klein breathed, his eyes wide in shock. "Why bother grinding mobs all day when you can just kill another player for an insane EXP boost? That practically breaks the fucking game! No MMO should reward you THAT much just for participating in PvP!"

"I'm guessing it's Kayaba Akihiko's personal way of saying: "oh by the way, fuck you" to all of the players. A final solution to create the perfect Death Game: by giving all of its contestants motive to kill each other for rewards instead of working together," Marco sneered, shaking his head in anger.

"N-No way… who would do such a horrible thing…" Asuna whispered, her body trembling as the implications of the Kill Reward slowly started to sink in. "Why… why…"

"Well, whatever the reason, it's obvious now that Kayaba intended for people to eventually fight each other in SAO," Argo stated, tapping her foot against the ground as she spoke. "Which just begs the question: what do we do with this new information? We can't just go around telling everyone about this, that would just make things ten times worse than they already are…"

"Yeah, tell me about it…" I replied, my mind running in circles as I tried to make heads and tails of the situation. "No good is going to come from spreading the word about Player-Killing offering rewards. I mean, it's bound to come out eventually, but for now, I think it's best if we remain silent about it and keep it to ourselves."

"I'm with Kirito on this one," Klein nodded, stroking his stubbly beard in contemplation. "I guess we gotta start being extra careful while we're out in the field too. Don't wanna get jumped by a group of bloodthirsty maniacs whilst you're out grinding for EXP and loot on your own."

"Maybe we should party up as well, just to make sure we don't run into any trouble. I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to attack a group of 5 people in broad daylight, after all," Marco added, already opening up his menu to send out the invites.

"At least until we get off this Floor, I think that's a good idea," I responded, pressing the floating button that had appeared in front of me with one hand. Seconds later, I saw three additional health bars pop up in the upper left corner of my field of view. "It probably won't be long before the Boss Room of this Floor is located anyway, and seeing as we were all planning on participating in the boss fight, it doesn't hurt to party up a little earlier than planned."

"Yeah, about that…" Argo cringed, looking down at the floating invite window in front of her. "I'm not sure if I should join the party just yet…"

"Why not?" Marco asked, confused at her rejection. "You got a death wish or something?"

"Nah, not exactly. It's just that… I am an Information Dealer, right? That means I'm constantly going to and from places in order to get new information, which doesn't really work when you're in a group of 5. I work better alone, and with my high Agility stat, I'll easily be able to outrun anyone who tries to off me," she replied with a smile, leaving the rest of us looking rather dumbfounded.

"Ditching your friends and risking your life just to earn a quick buck Argo? ... As expected of Aincrad's greatest Information Dealer," I joked, sighing dramatically as I did so. Despite the tense mood, everyone laughed at my comment, and before long, we had all said our goodbyes to Argo, watching her leave the room with a beaming smile on her face.

"So, what do we do now?" Asuna asked, re-equipping the rapier from her menu since she had taken it off before our little meeting started.

"Well, I guess the only thing we CAN do is head back out to the labyrinth. We gotta find that Boss Room and get off this Floor once and for all. I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick and tired of ox-type monsters," Marco shrugged.

The rest of us whole-heartedly agreed, and thus we left the inn room at "Carrion's Rest" and headed out towards the dungeon, intent on finding the Boss Room before nightfall.

* * *

**Floor 2 – Boss Room**

"It's coming straight for you, watch out!" I shouted out as Marco rushed forwards to switch positions with Klein who had been tanking for most of the fight so far.

"Yeah, I can see that, genius!" he replied sarcastically as he held up his sword to block the oncoming attack from **"Asterius the Taurus King"**. The Floor Boss's massive hammer came swinging down with the force of a thousand stars, and a shower of sparks erupted from the point of impact as it made contact with Marco's blade. To my surprise though, Marco held his ground, despite his health bar taking a good chunk of damage from the attack.

" **Asterius the Taurus King"** was the Floor Boss of the Second Floor of Aincrad, and had six HP bars. His appearance was that of a Taurus that had legs thick as tree trunks, waist covered with sturdy, dark chainmail, and a silvery platinum crown resting atop the centre of his head. His body was black as ink, and a twisted beard hung from his chin all the way to his stomach, giving him the appearance of a really buff, extreme tall, angry Taurus granddad. It actually would have been kinda funny if we had seen him outside of a life-or-death scenario, but now that we were risking our very lives to fight against him, we weren't exactly in the mood to laugh.

"Now, while he is recovering from the attack! Hit him with everything you've got!"

Every member in my party rushed towards the boss with battlecries erupting from their mouths, unleashing all the Sword Skills they could muster before retreating. Every time a blade sliced through the Taurus's thick skin, a small fountain of blood would spurt out, covering the body of the attacker in a red haze. The sickly-sweet smell of copper hung in the air, making it hard to breathe.

"Good, that was a great attack! But watch out, he's about to use a Skill!" I instructed, repositioning myself a little to the left to avoid the skill's expected area-of-effect. "Everybody, get back now!"

Leaning backwards, the boss started sucking in enormous amounts of air, his massive chest bulging like a barrel as little white sparks started crackling from his nostrils. Then, he suddenly shot forwards, releasing a beam of pure lightning from his mouth, the electricity scorching the very air as it made its way across the room. To our great horror, one unlucky player from the DKB (Dragon Knights Brigade) didn't manage to get out of the way in time, and was caught in the blast, his body being thrown violently back towards the wall. Once he finally landed, he remained still as a lightning-shaped icon appeared over his head. The lightning attack had inflicted the " **Paralysis** " effect on him, rendering him immobile for 20 seconds. Sadly, that was all the time the boss needed to rush over to him and smash its massive hammer down on his unmoving body. Underneath its tremendous weight, we heard the chilling sound of bones breaking, accompanied by an ear-piercing howl of pain. The player didn't suffer for long, though, as his health bar instantly hit negative two thousand, resulting in the destruction of his avatar and the death of his real world body.

The rest of us watched on in shock as the boss steadily got to his feet, a smear of blood coloring both the floor and the hammer as he did so.

 _God fucking dammit_ , I thought to myself as I tried to force my hands to stop shaking. _Another member of the Assault Team gone. How the fuck are we ever gonna get out of here if we lose so many players already on the Second Floor? We have already lost three people…_

Since the start of the boss fight, three frontline players had lost their lives in the struggle. Two had died to the ads (minions) spawned by the Boss, **"Baran the General Taurus"** and **"Nato the Colonel Taurus"** , before we managed to finish them off, and now one had been killed by the actual boss himself. If we kept going at this rate…

_It's only a matter of time before one of my party members dies._

"Don't give up yet, guys! We gotta finish this fight before we lose anyone else!" I said, not really knowing where my hopeless optimism came from. Usually, I was an insecure guy who didn't like to be in the center of attention, but for some reason, whenever we fought in large scale battles like this, my personality totally switched, and I just sort of assumed the leader position. I had no clue where this unknown strength came from, but I wasn't planning on letting it go to waste now that I had it. I was going to win us this fight, even if I had to kill the Floor Boss myself.

"I'll tank the next attack, so get into position!"

Rushing forwards with my sword held high, I made sure the boss's attention was locked firmly on me before planting my feet on the ground and bracing for impact. The hammer came down with a thunderous boom, and although I managed to deflect it to the side with great exertion, I still felt my very bones vibrate at the power of the impact, with an all too familiar sense of pain flooding my nerves.

"Argh…"

To my great surprise, however, the boss wasn't done just yet. Lifting the hammer up for a second time, he swung it back down again with astonishing speed, causing me to throw myself forwards in a desperate attempt at dodging the attack. Luckily enough, I just barely managed to get out of the way in time, and the hammer landed just a couple of centimeters behind me with a great bang. To everyone else watching though, it looked like I had been smashed flat by the massive weapon, and so I heard several of my party members cry out my name in shock.

"Kirito!"

"Kirito-kun!"

"I'm fine! Don't worry about me, keep attacking the boss!" I shouted back, a hint of frustration entering my voice. Why couldn't they see that all that mattered now was defeating this giant colossus of a boss? We didn't have the time to get sentimental about every little accident and every loss we suffered. We had to focus on winning the fight, so that we didn't lose anyone else.

Deep inside, though, I knew my anger at them was misdirected. But I couldn't help but feel that way as I rushed towards the now exposed stomach of the Floor Boss, my sword shining a deep shade of crimson.

"Take this, you fucking…!" I screamed as I plunged my blade deep into the monsters' abdomen, a torrent of blood spraying out from the wound. But I wasn't done just yet. Still reeling from the strike, I chained the end of the skill into another one, activating a second Sword Skill that swung my sword back around in an arch to deliver yet another slash to the beasts' stomach. Once that was done, however, the recovery period from using a Sword Skill finally kicked in, and I was left motionless as my body waited out the timer.

Despite being badly hurt, the Floor Boss's nostrils flared with rage, and he used his one free hand to swipe at my utterly defenseless body. I let out a scream of pain as his massive, hulking hand connected with my torso, sending me flying across the room before I collided with the wall on the opposite side. Staring up at my health bar with my teeth clenched, I watched as it dropped well into the yellow zone before stopping.

"Jesus, Kirito! Are you okay, man?!" I heard Klein yell, but all I could do was grunt in response. The feeling of pain was intense, visceral and all-encompassing, and I had to wait several seconds before it finally started to subside. But once it did however, I got up on my feet to shout out my next order:

"Asuna, switch with me whilst I heal back up!"

"Got it!"

Despite being in a state of shock just moments earlier, Asuna's keen mind immediately caught up with the situation, and she rushed forwards to take aggro whilst I opened up my menu. Up ahead, the boss let out a roar of anger before charging towards the female fencer.

The battle continued on like this for several minutes, with the ALS (Aincrad Liberation Squad) and DKB members also starting to tank aggro every now and then. Up until now, it had mostly been my group that was tanking the boss, due to our higher levels and better gear, but seeing us fight so valiantly must have inspired the other players to do more on their end as well.

Finally, we managed to get the boss down to its last HP bar, where its black skin started burning and sizzling like hot coal, signaling that it had just entered a " **Berserk** " state. From there on out to the end of the fight, all of its attacks were heavily buffed, so we had to be extra careful when fighting him, having three people tank each hit rather than just one. And then, after what felt like an eternity, we finally managed to slay **"Asterius the Taurus King"** , with Asuna being the one to receive the Last Attack bonus. With this, the Second Floor of Aincrad had been cleared, and the way to the Third Floor had been opened.

* * *

Letting out a long sigh, I sat down on the cold stone floor before whipping out a health potion. That certainly had been a tough fight. Despite the positive outcome, I still felt a strong sense of disappointment weighing down on my mind. We had lost three people today, three valuable members of the frontline group, and that was not something to take lightly. The number of players working to clear the game was already way too small from before, so we certainly couldn't afford to lose so many people with every Floor Boss we fought.

"Hey, good work out there today. You really stepped up to take charge this time," Marco said somewhere to my right, prompting my face to flush a deep shade of crimson.

"Eheheh… Yeah, I guess I kinda did. I dunno why it happens, but I have a tendency of getting really worked up during big fights…" I responded sheepishly, a shy smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.

"YOU MASSIVE IDIOT!" Asuna suddenly shouted, causing me to jump in surprise. Her anger came so out of left field for me that I ended up dropping my health potion out of sheer fright.

"You could have died out there, you know! What was that reckless charge you did?! Don't you know that chaining together Sword Skills leaves you vulnerable for an even longer period of time than just using one?! Why didn't you just back off instead of attacking it a second time?!" Rushing towards me, the chestnut-haired fencer fixed me with a look of sheer rage, and I couldn't help but gulp silently in terror at the sight of her. Right now, she was more terrifying than any Floor Boss, and I inwardly decided to do my best not to get on her bad side in the future.

"Hey, I'm sorry! I just thought that… you know, I could get in one more hit before retreating. That… might've been a mistake though…"

"Yeah, no shit! Don't do that in the future, okay?" she sighed, shaking her head in exasperation.

"Okay, I promise, Asuna!" I replied, nodding fervently in an attempt at satisfying her anger. I had a feeling that, in that moment, I would be willing to do anything she asked of me as long as it got her to stop being mad. I really didn't want to risk unleashing the full wrath of her anger by accident, after all.

"Good. That's all I ask," she nodded, turning away from me with a satisfied "hmph".

"…She's scary," Marco breathed.

"Yeah, for sure," I agreed, shuddering slightly at the thought of it.

* * *

Ascending the staircase to the Third Floor, we walked out into the cold, night air and took a good look at our new surroundings. What greeted us was a massive forest choked with thick fog, lush flora and green terrain. It was obvious that this was a forest-themed Floor, but I didn't really mind that as I had always liked forests. In front of us, we could see the outskirts of the main city of the Third Floor, a city seemingly made up of three gigantic baobab trees, with many-floored structures cut into them. Consulting my mental memory of what I knew about the beta test, I vaguely remembered reading that the city was called Zumfut, and that it was the starting point of an infamous quest chain known as the Elf War campaign, a quest chain that I had no intention of doing.

As crazy as it might sound to drop such a big questline, the Elf War campaign wasn't the ONLY multi-floor quest chain that started here on the Third Floor. There were others, more obscure quests to be undertaken. Quests with very interesting rewards. And I had always preferred the less mainstream route anyway.

_Two Floors down, only 98 to go… Bring it on, Kayaba. I'm not going to die here. I'll make sure I survive this Death Game, no matter how many obstacles you throw my way!_

With those thoughts resonating throughout my mind, I started heading towards the city of Zumfut together with my party, not bothering to take as much as a single glance backwards at the tunnel we had emerged from.


	7. A New Threat Looms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

**Floor 4 – The South Holding Cells – Town of Rovia**

"I swear, he was right here when I left earlier today!" the NPC guardsman exclaimed as he gestured to an empty cell in the back of the room. "I have no idea how he got out!"

"Aha…" I muttered absentmindedly as I surveyed the room, completely ignoring most of the NPC's dialogue. When I started on this quest chain by talking to an elderly man in the Town Square earlier this day, I had not expected it to be a particularly convoluted affair. Seeing as its start point was in the middle of this Floor's main city, Rovia, I had assumed it was designed to be a quest that could be undertaken by just about anyone, and thus wouldn't be particularly difficult. This had turned out to be a very inaccurate assessment.

It had started out being relatively simple, with me being tasked with transporting a valuable necklace by boat to a neighboring village. The first half of the journey had gone by painlessly, with me joining a crew of soldiers on their daily sea patrol that just so happened to stop by the place I needed to go. What I hadn't expected, however, was that our ship was going to be boarded by a band of pirates, and that one of them would take said valuable necklace from me.

What followed after that was a chain of quests that had me chasing after the pirates, fighting in a series of increasingly difficult enemy encounters, before finally cornering the thief and taking him capture. As I then went back to report my adventures to the old man, the NPC guards had taken the thief to an empty holding cell in the city, which I ultimately ended up visiting in order to retrieve the necklace. But, to my frustration, the cell where the thief was supposed to be was now seemingly empty, with no sign of neither him nor the valuable necklace.

 _God, I hate quests that drag on for too long_ , I silently thought to myself as I inspected the room, looking for any clues on what to do next. _Leave it up to Kayaba to painstakingly handcraft several thousand intricate questlines just to immerse his players_.

"Have you found anything yet, sir?" the guard asked, looking nervous and slightly bashful at the same time.

"No, I haven't. But maybe if you let me search for more than 2 minutes before asking, I might find something," I replied sarcastically, receiving no further reply from the NPC as expected. Most NPC's in SAO would only respond to certain sentences or keywords, after all, so my sarcasm would sadly go unnoticed by almost all of them.

Just as I was about to give up on my search, I spotted something lying in the corner of the cell. Gesturing for the guard to open it up (which he thankfully understood and subsequently did), I walked over to what I now recognized as a tiny piece of parchment and picked it up. On it was written three simple words:

"The Drowning Sailor".

_Way to make it obvious, Kayaba._

The Drowning Sailor was obviously a reference to some establishment on the Fourth Floor somewhere. All I had to do now was ask some NPC's where I could find this place, head over there and probably fight some miniboss or something, and then the questline would be over.

"Hey, you," I said, turning around to address the guard. He immediately stood at attention, replying with a "Yes, sir?".

"Do you know of any establishment called "The Drowning Sailor"?"

The NPC seemed to think for a second, before hesitantly shaking his head.

"I don't think so, sir. You can try asking Mr. Treyford though, he might know of such a place."

Mr. Treyford was the name of the old man who had given me the quest in the first place.

"Oh, okay. Well, I guess this is goodbye then. See ya never," I stated casually as I walked out of the cell and headed for the door, the guard completely ignoring my comment. He probably wasn't programmed to reply to goodbyes, especially not snarky ones.

Outside, it was rapidly approaching dusk, and it had gotten considerably colder than earlier. The town of Rovia looked positively breathtaking, with its chalk-colored buildings and gothic lanterns lighting up the dim, early night sky.

A lot had happened since the battle against **Asterius the Taurus King** on the Second Floor. Our little group had gone on to clear most of the Third Floor in just a couple of days, with some of us breaking off towards the end to start on the Elf War Campaign that had its start point on said Floor. Personally, I hadn't been interested in doing said questline, as I had heard from beta testers back in the day that it didn't offer much in terms of EXP and rewards, and was mostly done to experience more of the story and lore. And whilst I was certainly interested in the origins of Aincrad and the in-game world, I couldn't be bothered to grind through tons of quests with little to no reward just for story information. I left that to other, more diligent players, who perhaps weren't as concerned with maintaining a high level and participating in the Floor Boss battles.

And, speaking of Floor Bosses, the Boss of the Third Floor, **Nerius the Evil Treant** , had been an absolute cakewalk compared to his predecessor, **Asterius the Taurus King**. Unlike him, **Nerius** had no ads or minions, and used heavily telegraphed attacks that were easy to dodge if you were paying attention. In hindsight, you probably didn't even need tanks to take him down, since you could just dodge all of his attacks if your Agility stat was high enough.

 _Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if Argo could've 1v1'ed him_ , I pondered to myself as I made my way through the lantern-lit streets of Rovia towards the Town Square. _She has a ridiculously high Agility stat after all, I wouldn't be surprised if she could get through the entire boss fight without taking any damage. It would take ages to do though, seeing as you would have to scrape down his HP bit by bit._

Anyway, after defeating **Nerius** , the way to the Fourth Floor had been opened, and we had come spilling out of the boss chamber to check out our new surroundings. We already had an idea of what to expect due to beta tester information, but contrary to the beta test, the entire Fourth Floor had seemingly been completely reworked to a surprising degree.

During the beta test, the entire Floor had been a gravelly, reddish-brown land that consisted of a crisscrossing web of narrow, intersecting canyons that were sandy at the bottom and impossible to scale. The players had had no choice but to travel through the canyons by foot, the sand making it significantly harder than normal to traverse. The complexity of the intersecting canyons had also made it easy to get lost and difficult to navigate.

In this version of the game however, the once sandy cliffs had been filled with water and the reddish-brown land was covered in lush greenery. It was no longer possible to simply walk across the Floor: in order to traverse the canyons, you now actually had to use gondolas and other player-crafted boats, as swimming in the water was nigh impossible unless you de-equipped all of your gear and used swimming rings which grew on a singular tree near the entrance to the Floor.

This had been a refreshing surprise for both the beta testers and us normal players, as we had all dreaded the thought of having to slog through sandy canyons with walking speed debuffs.

The main city of Rovia had also been reworked, going from having a rather plain and boring design in the beta test to becoming a bright white town in the middle of a square lake. The earlier stone-paved roads were replaced with waterways, and gondolas were now needed to travel to different areas of the town.

It was a cool idea that, coupled with the lanterns that came on at night, made the whole place give off some really strong Venice vibes. Needless to say, Asuna had immediately fallen in love with it.

Sadly, due to a difference in priorities within the party, we had ultimately decided to split up for the time being. Asuna and Marco had teamed up to continue on the Elf War Campaign questline, as they were the only ones from our party who had started on it back on the Third Floor, and the rest of us had gone our separate ways to grind EXP and search out better equipment.

Personally, I had spent my time completing quests and exploring Rovia, which had been a surprisingly good experience. Say what you want about Kayaba Akihiko, but the man knew how to make an interesting world. I still struggled to believe it sometimes, that everything I was seeing was merely an illusion, a fake world created out of ones and zeros. It all felt so **real** , so visceral. If SAO hadn't turned into a death game, I was sure it would have been a great success, both commercially and critically.

_Which just begs the question… why did Kayaba trap us in here and make us fight for our lives? Surely there has to be a reason, right? I mean, he had already made his dream game, why ruin himself and his company by turning it into some twisted horror show?_

I still shuddered whenever I thought back to those first weeks of the game, when the entire playerbase had basically been in shock and denial. The amount of deaths and suicides… It truly had been a tragic time.

I suppose that, in some sense, I was lucky to still be alive. Our little stunt on the Second Floor with that Field Boss and my subsequent… run-in… with the PK'er, had given me an insane EXP boost that had pushed me way ahead of the curve. Because of it, I was strong enough to fight comfortably on my own most of the time, without having to constantly fear death at every second.

_I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must be for the lower-levelled players… I don't know if I would have the bravery to continue playing this game solo if I was in their position._

The thought of owing Marco for pulling me into his suicide mission did infuriate me, however, even if it had given me a huge advantage in terms of levels and EXP.

As I rounded a street corner and spotted the Town Square up ahead, the soft sound of a bell ringing filled my ears. Looking down, I noticed a flashing message icon floating in the air. Someone had apparently sent me a Direct Message.

Pressing the icon with my index finger, another screen popped up in front of me, showing me the message that I had received. It was from Klein.

" _Hey bud, hope you're doing okay. Just wanted to let you know that something… very bad has happened. There has been another PK incident_."

My heart skipped a beat as I read those words, the blood in my veins immediately freezing to ice. Another PK incident? That could only mean one thing… someone else had discovered the Player-Killing reward.

" _Yeah, I know. It's not good. I have already notified the other guys, and we've decided to meet up at "The Travelling Merchant" tomorrow morning. Apparently Asuna and Marco have some information they want to share with us regarding the incident. Their message was kinda vague, so I don't know what they have to say, but I'm guessing it's important if they would go to the trouble of contacting us. Sorry if this means you'll have to put some quests on hold, but I think this takes priority. Hope to see you there._

_\- Klein_

_Shit. Fuck._

This was definitely not good indeed. If someone else knew about the Player-Killing rewards, it could spell doom for the rest of the playerbase if they leaked the information out to the public. People were bound to start cutting each other down in order to gain EXP and get stronger, which would completely halt the clearing process of the game. It would be hard to beat SAO if all the players were dead, after all.

Racing my fingers across the floating display in front of me, I sent a quick message back to Klein thanking him for notifying me, and assuring him I would be there in the morning. This had the potential to develop into an absolute catastrophe. I had always known that the information was bound to get out one day, but I was determined to push that day back as far as possible, at least until the majority of the playerbase was higher-levelled and well-geared enough to not die in three or four hits.

_It's way too early for this information to leak out. We have to keep it hidden from the general public for as long as possible. Please, don't let this be the time we spiral out of control..._

* * *

**Floor 4 – "The Travelling Merchant" – Town of Rovia**

Walking through the birch-wood hallways of the tavern called "The Travelling Merchant", I couldn't help but feel slightly nervous at the thought of seeing everyone again. It had only been a couple of days since we had disbanded our party, but for some reason, it felt like I hadn't seen them in ages. It was almost as if time went by slower here in Aincrad than in the real world, which I suppose only made sense, seeing as you spent your days risking your life and fighting supernatural monsters with swords and skills in here.

Coming to a stop in front of one of the tens of wooden doors that littered the hallway, I took a deep breath to steady my surprisingly jittery nerves. Before I got a chance to knock on the door, however, it opened on its own, and I suddenly found myself staring into the hazel eyes of a very familiar-looking female fencer.

"Oh, Kirito-kun! You made it!" Asuna said with a happy smile, causing my face to flush a slight tint of crimson.

"Y-Yeah, I did. Good to see you again, Asuna," I replied nervously, trying my best to sound as casual as possible. Hot damn, this girl was pretty. Her slender body, beautiful features and orange-brown chestnut hair never failed to make my heart skip a beat.

_Why did I always have to be so anti-social back in the real world? If only I had spent more time around other women that weren't my sister, I might've had a chance with this girl…_

"Well, come on in. We were just going to start the meeting," she nodded in response, gesturing for me to enter the room. Sending her a weak smile, I walked past her and was greeted to the sight of my other friends seated around a long table, all of them smiling at me as I entered.

"What's good, Kirito," Marco stated casually, his right hand raised in a greeting.

"Good to see ya, Kii-boy!" Argo smirked.

"H-Hey guys, good to see you too!" I replied, taking a seat at the far end of the table. Klein shifted his chair around to make more room for me, before giving me a friendly pat on the back.

"Good to see you're still in one piece, man. Although I'm hardly surprised, given your OP stats," he joked nonchalantly, causing me to scoff.

"Hah, I'm barely stronger than you are, so don't even try," I retorted, causing him to smile.

"Sure, but that's just because I'm so damn good at this game. Anyone else would have fallen behind you weeks ago!"

"Good at the game? That's funny, Klein. I can still remember the day I met you and your friends on the First Floor, you know. You let me join you guys when you were heading out to do a quest, and in the beginning, you didn't even know how to read the in-game map! You led us in the completely wrong direction!" Asuna chimed in, having found her seat and gotten into a comfortable position at the table.

"H-Hey, that was just a rookie mistake! Completely understandable! A total fluke!"

"Ahh, a rookie mistake, huh? And what about that time you FORGOT how to open the menu? You know, the **most important thing in the game** ," Asuna chuckled, determined to win this argument.

"We don't talk about that! Now, didn't you invite us here to tell us something? Or did you just feel like roasting me?" Klein grumbled, attempting to pull the conversation back to safer topics.

"Well, me and Marco do have some news to share. But roasting you sounds more fun!" she replied with a smile, causing Klein to groan.

"Okay, okay, as entertaining as this is, Klein is right: we have something to tell you guys," Marco interjected, tapping his foot on the ground as he spoke. "As you undoubtedly know by now, there has been another PK incident."

The relaxed atmosphere deflated in an instant, and suddenly, everyone looked a lot more serious than they had mere moments ago. This was grave news, after all, and thus had to be taken seriously.

"A player going by the name of Malthar has apparently been killed in the outskirts of Usco Village here on the Fourth Floor. We know this because a mutual acquaintance of ours, a guy named Kibaou, came to me with the news," Marco continued, making sure he had our full attention.

A lot of bells suddenly went off in my head at the same time. Malthar, Kibaou… where had I heard those names before?

"Kibaou… That's the guy who started the hate-campaign against the beta testers, right?" Klein asked, filling in one of the blanks for me. Kibaou had been the agitator who had riled up the crowd to go against the beta testers back on the First Floor, even going as far as giving them a new, derogatory name: beaters. I had always disagreed with that sentiment, and thus refused to call them that. To me, the beta testers were and had always been invaluable sources of information about this world and how to survive in it. Why anyone would feel hatred or dislike towards them was completely outlandish to me. Even IF they took the best quests and resources for themselves, they had still done more than enough to help out us normal players and give us hints to get started.

"… Yeah, that's the guy. I met him for the first time during that strategy meeting back in Tolbana. Pissed me the hell off, if I remember correctly. But I added him to my Friends List all the same because he was a member of the Aincrad Liberation Squad, and I was seriously considering joining them back then," Marco replied, leaning back in his chair and placing his feet on the table. A stern look from Asuna made him put them back down on the floor again, though.

"Anyway, he messaged me out of the blue yesterday asking for a favor. Said that some friend of his named Malthar was missing near Usco Village, and that he would put in a good word for me with his guild leader if I looked into it. And you know me… I always like to keep my doors open."

"Marco wanted to be on the ALS leader's good side, so he convinced me to come with him to Usco and help him investigate," Asuna cut in, causing Marco to raise his arms in a defensive manner.

"Hey, it's always good to be in cahoots with the big boys, you know! And I figured that if I did this favor for Kibaou, I could gain some positive rep with his boss AND make him less suspicious of me in one fell swoop!"

"Why would Kibaou be suspicious of you though?" I asked, feeling slightly confused.

"Oh, because he suspects that I'm a beta tester," Marco replied nonchalantly.

The silence that followed his words was deafening.

"A… And are you a beta tester?" I finally pried, fully expecting him to simply laugh it off and call me a dumbass for even asking.

"Yup."

"WHAT!?"

Everyone in the room except for Asuna had the exact same reaction. We all couldn't believe that Marco had secretly been a beta tester all this time without us even knowing.

"He told me whilst we were finishing up the Elf War Campaign quests on this Floor," Asuna said, shaking her head in exasperation. "I was incredibly surprised in the beginning as well, but then I realized that it only made sense. He knew so much about the questline from before, like where to go and who to talk to. We were basically speedrunning those quests towards the end."

"Yeah, that's because I've done them before, during the beta test. Although, they have definitely upped the difficulty on some of them since then. Man, that final battle outside of Yofel Castle was rooough!"

"Yeah, tell me about it," Asuna sighed, her fingers twirling around a stray lock of hair. "My rapier almost ran out of durability during that fight. Good thing the rewards were worth it."

"Wait, hold on a second…" I piped up, furrowing my eyebrows. "I thought the Elf War Campaign was supposed to have shit rewards, that's why so many people didn't bother picking it up."

"Oh yeah, the rewards during the beta test sucked ass. But they seem to have changed that for this version of the game. We both got a decent amount of EXP and Col for completing the quests, and this sick ring that gives us the ability to enter any Dark Elf fortification or building we want," Marco replied, lifting up his hand to show me his newly acquired piece of gear. And sure enough, there was a new ring on one of his fingers, glinting dully in the morning light that shone through the windows of the room.

"Huh, wow… Now I feel kinda bad that I dropped it," I muttered weakly, crossing my arms in front of my chest. "I might have to go back to the Second Floor again and pick it up."

"Actually, I'm not sure I'd recommend doing that. You've outlevelled that content a long time ago, and the quests take quite a lot of time to do, even if you know exactly where to go," Marco advised, making me feel even more guilty for not picking it up earlier.

_Goddammit… If only I wasn't so quick to listen to rumors…_

"Oh, and don't forget what Viscount Yofilis told us, Marco. About that Floor Boss mechanic," Asuna suddenly said, making Marco's eyes light up.

"Ahh, that's right! Argo, you're gonna wanna hear this."

"Oh? What have ya got for me?" the small girl asked, her signature grin plastered on her face.

"According to an NPC in the Elf War questline called Viscount Yofilis, the Floor Boss of this Floor has a special ability that lets him flood the boss chamber once during a raid battle. This attack can apparently wipe out an entire party if you don't know the proper way of dealing with it, so we'll have to think of some way to prevent that from happening," Marco said.

"Hmmm… That is big news, indeed. If we had attempted to raid the boss without knowing that beforehand… I don't even want to consider what could've happened... But I take it you expect compensation for that piece of information, yeah?" Argo smiled, already opening up her menu to send Marco a trade request.

"I mean, if you WANNA give me some Col for my troubles, I'm not one to say noooo…."

Marco let his sentence trail off when he noticed the absolutely bone-chilling look Asuna was sending him.

"A-Actually, you can have that one for free."

"Thanks a lot!" Argo chuckled, closing her menu again.

"But anyway, back to the topic at hand: you went out to search for this Malthar guy near Usco Village, and then what happened?" I asked, steering the conversation back on track.

"Oh, right, that. Yeah, so me and Asuna headed over to Usco and did some looking around. Turns out, this guy has been causing all kinds of trouble around town. Killing NPC's, robbing players by catching them off guard when they're out grinding, etcetera. His cursor has apparently even gone orange," Marco continued, nodding as he spoke.

"Killing NPC's?" Klein asked, clearly confused. "What do you get from doing that?"

"Absolutely nothing, at least according to what I've heard. But this is still an MMO at heart, remember. People like to be dicks for the sole purpose of being dicks," I answered honestly, not even surprised at the news that someone would be so dumb as to waste their time killing NPC's. The only thing you would get out of doing that was a yellow cursor (meaning NPC guards would attack you on sight and take away your gear before imprisoning you in the Black Iron Palace on the First Floor).

"But… if the NPC's are dead, do they ever respawn?"

"Oh yeah, they come back after 15 minutes."

"Ahh, okay."

"Well, anyway, back to the story," Marco cut in, making me and Klein turn our attention back to him instead. "So: me and Asuna decided to wait around the village for a bit, to see if this guy was going to turn up, right. Well, to our great surprise, he never did. Some other players came and went, including a real shady looking guy that was wearing all black and had multiple throwing knives strapped to his waist, but our target never showed. And just when we were about to give up, I got an angry message from Kibaou. Malthar's name had apparently disappeared from his Friends List, and when he went to check the Monument of Life in the Black Iron Palace on the First Floor; you know, the one with all the players' names on it, his name was apparently crossed out. Which could only mean one thing…"

"He's dead," I finished, letting out a sigh. If a player's name was crossed out on the Monument of Life, it meant that their avatar had died. The second someone died here in Aincrad, the Monument would cross out the name of the newly deceased player, and write the time, day, month and cause of death beside it.

_Time, day, month and_ _**cause of death** _ _…_

"Wait! What did the Monument list as cause of death?" I asked, leaning forward in my chair.

"Well, according to Kibaou, it said: "death by player". Which is exactly how we knew it was a PK'er and not a monster that did him in!"

"God damn…"

"So it really is true… There has been another PK," Klein growled through gritted teeth.

"We have to do something about this," I said, my eyes hard and determined. "We cannot let the perpetrator get away with this, even if his victim was an orange player. We have to find this guy, and… and…"

I let my sentence trail off as I struggled to find the right words. Asuna sent me a sad smile from across the table, seemingly reading my mind and hearing the words I wanted to convey, but couldn't say out loud.

" _And take him down, right?"_ her eyes told me, and I nodded in response.

"We cannot let this player go free. If he's killed indiscriminately once, chances are he's going to do it again now that he knows about the Player-Killing reward. That cannot be allowed to happen," I continued, locking eyes with the others around the table to make sure they understood.

"Kirito is right. We have to find this guy and stop him, no matter what," Klein said, standing up from his chair and reequipping his katana from his menu. "We can't afford to waste time here. We should split up and head to Usco Village as soon as possible. I take it no one is against that?"

Nobody said a word, we all just nodded and rose from our seats, reequipping our own weapons and mentally preparing ourselves for the task ahead of us.

"Alright then, here we go. Operation Capture-Mysterious-Killer-And-Send-Him-To-Jail-Or-Something starts… now!" Marco smiled, heading over to the door and leading us out of the room and towards the small village of Usco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For those of you who might be feeling uncertain about the Kirito/Asuna pairing after this chapter, do not worry; I'm not going to pair Asuna with Marco, even if it seems like I am doing so right now. Them teaming up is just a temporary thing, seeing as we are still only on the Fourth Floor.
> 
> I also decided to skip writing about the Third Floor entirely except for in a flashback, because the Third Floor is honestly boring AF and I can't be bothered to retell SAO: Progressive word by word. Then again, I already told you guys that I wasn't going to be following canon as much in this story, so I don't think a lot of you were surprised by that.


	8. Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

**Floor 4 - Road to Usco Village**

The sun shone down on us through the leaves of the forest as our group of five made its way towards Usco Village. The mood in the group was somber to say the least, everyone's thoughts wholly preoccupied with what awaited us once we got there. We all knew we would most likely have to fight. And unlike the system-controlled monsters we normally faced, this time, we would be up against actual humans. Real people, with real feelings and relationships of their own.

If Kayaba's declaration of death in the game meaning death in real life was real, then someone here would perhaps turn into a murderer today. And the thought of that was downright terrifying.

It wouldn't be me, of course, because I was already a murderer. I had already killed another human being, deep in that dungeon on the Second Floor. And whilst the EXP boost it had given me had likely saved my life, I couldn't help but detest everything about it. It wasn't right, to give people advantages for committing murders. It was just too cruel.

"Kirito-kun?" Asuna suddenly asked, her voice dragging me out of my daydreams. I turned around to face her, only to notice that the two of us were seemingly walking on our own, the others nowhere in sight.

"Asuna? Where did the others go?"

"You were lost in thought and started walking really fast… and I didn't feel like disturbing you. I've been following you in silence since then, but we've walked so far ahead now that I figured we should wait for the others to catch up."

"Oh…" Using a hand to scratch the back of my head, I put on an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I… do that sometimes. When I'm thinking about something really hard, I tend to just zone out and forget about my surroundings."

"No no, it's perfectly okay. I think we all have a lot to think about right now."

"Yeah…"

Letting the conversation fade, the two of us stood in silence as we waited for the others to catch up. The forest around us looked positively breathtaking, as emerald green and picturesque as it was, brimming with color and life. It was hard to believe this was all running on some game engine, and not taking place in a real forest in Northern Europe.

"Hey, Kirito-kun…" Asuna finally said after a long pause.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you think… Kayaba Akihiko trapped us here?"

The question caught me off-guard, and I had to take a moment to ponder before answering her.

"I honestly don't know. I think his original vision was to create a realistic fantasy world for people to get immersed in, at least judging by the interviews he gave during the development of SAO. He wanted to push the boundaries of video games by creating something completely unique, a fully realized world that players could live and breathe. But why he would then go on to make it a death game… I can't even begin to imagine."

"… Do you think it could've been for some monetary reason? Like the government or some shadowy corporation paying him a large amount of money to conduct an illegal experiment for them and take the blame for it afterwards?"

"Hmm… nah, not really. He doesn't strike me as the "soldier of fortune" type. He must've had some other reason, something deeply personal driving him forwards. I just can't figure out what that reason would be. I mean, the game obviously would've been an international success if it wasn't for the whole "death game" business. Say what you want about SAO, but it truly is a remarkable achievement of technology."

"Yeah… I've been thinking a lot about that too. It's been months since we got stuck in this game, and yet… I find myself missing the real world less and less with every day that passes. It's honestly just really weird. I should be wanting to go home, right? But… this world… Sword Art Online… despite how scary it can be, despite all the horrible things that have happened, I still find myself oddly drawn to it. There is just so much beauty to be found, like this forest right here. It's like something out of a fairytale…"

Hearing Asuna talk about it so openly, I couldn't help but agree with what she was saying. I had also found myself thinking less and less about my old life. I missed my family of course, my sister Suguha and my mom, but the pain wasn't as present as it had once been. I had gotten used to living the life of a swordsman here in this virtual world. Of fighting monsters and clearing dungeons, levelling up and becoming stronger.

To be completely honest, my old life almost seemed boring in comparison.

"… I get what you're saying. I want to beat this death game and get out, that I am sure of. But for some reason… it isn't as important to me as it once was. There have been moments where I've felt more alive in here than I ever did in the real world. And that honestly scares me a bit."

Asuna gave me a sad smile in response, nodding her head in agreement. It was obvious she felt the same way.

Our conversation was cut short by the sound of boots hitting ground. Turning around, we saw the others approaching us on the road behind us.

"Ran ahead to get some alone time with Asuna, ehh Kirito?" Klein asked, a playful smile plastered on his face.

"Very funny, Klein," Asuna replied, rolling her eyes at his comment.

"Yeah, very funny…" I coughed; my face slightly flushed.

"Well, whatever it was you two ran ahead for, we're getting close to Usco Village now. We ought to stick together from here on out, in case we get ambushed by the PKer who killed Malthar," Marco said, his expression more serious than I had ever seen it before.

"…Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry you guys, it was reckless of me to leave you behind," I sighed, earning myself a comforting smile from Asuna.

"Naah, don't worry about it, Kii-boy. All's well that ends well," Argo replied, her mood light and cheerful as always.

"Anyway, let's proceed onwards with caution," Marco finished, taking the lead as we continued on our way towards the small village. It didn't take long before we spotted the first sign of conflict, however.

On the road up ahead, there were clear signs of a struggle. Multiple deep cuts littered the nearby trees, and there were curious-looking metal objects scattered across the ground at different intervals.

"Be careful guys, we don't know if the perpetrator is still around," I warned, my eyes scanning the forest around us for any signs of danger.

"What are these?" Klein asked, bending over to pick up one of the metal objects once we got close enough to get a good look at them.

"I dunno, I've never seen anything like it before. Look at the item description," Marco said.

Tapping the object with one finger, a small text window appeared in front of Klein. We all leaned in to get a closer look at it.

_**-:/Smoke Bomb\:-** _

_**A small container containing large amounts of condensed smoke. Will explode upon impact if thrown, creating a smokescreen that can be used to escape from monsters or hide one's presence.** _

"Smoke bombs? I didn't even know such an item existed in the game!" Argo exclaimed, clearly frustrated. That wasn't surprising though, as she prided herself on her skills as an Information Broker. Not knowing about something was probably her worst fear.

"Yeah, me neither. Would've been damn useful to know about, especially to me as a solo player. A means to safely escape from monsters could mean the difference between life and death in certain situations, after all," I sighed, picking up a different smoke bomb that was lying a little ways away from Klein. It looked like any other ordinary metal ball, except that it had some kind of engraving on the side, written in an ancient language I could only dream of understanding.

_Probably Elvish, if I had to take a guess. If I remember correctly, I did read somewhere that Kayaba Akihiko actually created an entirely new written language just for the Elves of Aincrad. The guy has an insane eye for detail, I'll give him that._

"They don't seem to work, though," Klein commented, throwing the one he was holding at the ground only to watch it bounce away from him.

"They have most likely already been used by whoever was here before us. The item durability just hasn't expired yet," I answered, opening up the item description of the one I was holding to confirm my suspicions. Just like I thought, it still had a tiny bit of health left, health that was slowly ticking away with each second that passed.

_Man, I want some of these for myself. I wonder where you can get them? Are they a Quest Reward or can you just buy them in bulk from some NPC shop somewhere?_

"Hey, guys? I think you might want to check this out," Asuna chimed in, pointing towards something laying in the grass a couple of meters away from where we had found the smoke bombs.

Walking closer to her, I immediately recognized what it was. On first appearance, it looked like your standard leather knapsack that any adventurer could buy in the beginner shops on Floor 1. But anyone playing SAO would know what it actually represented.

Whenever you died to monsters or any other natural cause in SAO (both during the Beta and now), your avatar would dissolve into glimmering fragments and disappear, leaving nothing behind. **But** , if you were to die in PvP combat against another player… you would leave behind a standard leather knapsack like this containing some of your loot.

The fact that such a leather knapsack was laying here on the grass right now could therefore only mean one thing. A player character had been killed by another player character in this exact spot. And not too long ago either, seeing as the leather knapsack had a despawn timer of 20 minutes.

The mood of the group immediately declined as we realized the implications of it all.

"This is where he died…" Klein muttered, staring at the knapsack with a sad look on his face.

"No… it's worse than that, I'm afraid. This is definitely not Malthar's stuff…" I answered, my voice trembling ever so slightly.

"What…? It isn't?"

"Kii-boy is right. This can't be where Malthar died. The leather knapsack containing a player character's loot despawns after 20 minutes if someone doesn't take everything inside of it. And it's been way more than 20 minutes since we got the news that Malthar had died," Argo confirmed, her normal gleefulness all but gone from her voice.

"Wait, then does that mean…?"

"Yeah… this belongs to someone else."

The silence that followed was deafening.

_2 confirmed PK's within the span of two days… and who knows how many more we don't know about. If these PK's were committed by the same person… I don't even want to imagine how much of an EXP boost he has received by now. We could be facing a massively overlevelled PK'er here._

It was obvious the others had arrived at the same conclusion, judging by the way they all seemed to tense up and give the forest an extra careful look. This whole mission just got a whole lot deadlier, after all.

"Well… this fucking sucks," Klein finally said, breaking the silence.

"Tell me about it," Marco replied, his hand tightening its grip around the handle of his sword. "We need to be even more careful from now on, in case the PK'er is still around."

"Oh, he most definitely is," a shrill voice suddenly laughed, the sound coming from somewhere amongst the trees to our left.

_What!?_

We all immediately spun around on our heels and pulled out our weapons, our eyes darting across the landscape as we searched for the source of the unknown voice.

"Looks like we caught a big group this time, boys," another voice said, this one coming from somewhere behind us.

_There's multiple of them?!_

"Oh for sure. They look pretty geared out too, so this oughta be fun!" a third voice replied, causing shivers to run down my spine. We had been such idiots. The used smoke bombs, signs of struggle and player-dropped loot had been bait to draw curious players in. This was a trap. And we had fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.

Suddenly, we heard the sounds of multiple branches breaking, and out of the trees they came. Three men, all with red cursors floating above their heads. Fully dressed in high-end gear and wearing black cloaks to cover their faces.

I couldn't stop a gasp of terror from escaping my throat as I saw them.

"Well well well, would you look at this, boys. Seems like we caught quite the group!" the one on the right snickered.

"Oh man, they have two hot bitches in their party, too! Look at the one with the chestnut hair! She's crazy hot!" the one in the middle laughed, pointing a finger at Asuna. She visibly recoiled at the motion, her face scrunching up into a grimace.

"Damn, you're right! I wouldn't mind getting my hands on some of that, I haven't fucked someone in months!" the last one added, pulling out a large, two-handed axe from his back.

"Fucking animals…" Asuna muttered under her breath, her eyes shining with fury.

"So, you're the guys who have been killing people around here?" Marco asked, the cocky smile on his face betrayed by the ice in his voice.

"Yup," the first one answered, stopping a couple of meters away from our group. "And it's been a real cakewalk, too. It's almost impossible to win a 1v3 fight, after all. Taking their shit is too easy."

"Goddamn cowards," I snarled, my anger getting the better of me. "Ambushing players three on one, not even giving them a chance to fight back. No wonder you have such good gear when you've been using bitch tactics like that."

"Hey, if it works, it works! This is a death game, after all. Every man for himself, right? Gotta do what you gotta do to survive," the one with the axe shrugged, seemingly not caring one bit about the nature of his grotesque actions.

"But man, I gotta say: when I found out that they actually REWARD you for killing other players… I almost laughed myself to death!" the middle one smirked, opening up his menu to equip a dagger in his left hand and a shortsword in his right. "The EXP boost it gives you is insane! I'm level 22 now because of that!"

_LEVEL 22?!_

I was only level 19. Marco, the highest-levelled member of our party, was 20.

_God fucking dammit._

"You think you've earned those levels? The only reason you have them is because you've been killing innocent players! You're nothing more than a pathetic loser who can't play the game without cheating!" Klein yelled, his knuckles turning white from how hard he was holding onto his katana.

"Cheating? Who says we're cheating? It's not our fault the game lets you level up via Player Killing. We're only taking advantage of the opportunities the game is offering us!" the first one responded, bringing out his own weapon, a Morning star-looking club.

"Well guess what? Your little murdering spree ends here. We can't let you leave here alive, not after what you just told us," Marco smiled, his eyes filled with newfound intensity.

"Hah! You're more than welcome to try, you fucking weasel. Come at me!" the middle one sneered, his muscles tensing up as he got into a fighting stance.

"We'll send your sorry asses to the afterlife!" the one with the axe added.

_Here we go…_

Taking a deep breath, I strengthened my resolve before holding out my sword in front of me. This was it. The battle we had been dreading ever since we set out for Usco Village. Time to put these fuckers in the grave.

There was a moment of silence as we all stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. It didn't take long before someone did.

Asuna was the first one to attack, letting out a battlecry as she rushed forwards towards the one with the axe, her rapier shining a deep shade of yellow. The axe-wielder responded with a shout of his own, swinging his weapon wildly in front of him to deflect Asuna's attack.

A loud clanging sound filled our ears as steel met steel. And then all hell broke loose.

Rushing towards the one wielding the Morning star, I activated the two-part Sword Skill "Vertical Slash", my sword enveloped in bright purple light. The PKer pulled up his club to defend himself, and my blade connected with his weapon with a heavy thud, causing sparks to fly everywhere. The impact sent ripples through my arm, but I held on, jumping backwards to avoid being hit as he swung the club around in an attempt to deliver a crushing blow.

All around me, sounds of battle could now be heard. I didn't know how the others were doing, but I knew in my heart that I had to trust in their ability to fight for themselves as long as I had this enemy in front of me. I couldn't afford to be distracted for even a moment. One wrong move and this guy's Morning star would come crashing into me.

Letting out a scream of joy, the PK'er suddenly dashed towards me, his club held high above his head. It was obvious that he was going for a vertical strike, so I waited until the last possible second before I side-stepped the attack, feeling the wind ripple across my skin as his weapon missed me by mere inches. Taking advantage of the opportunity this afforded me, I used the full length of my arm to jab my sword forwards, impaling the PK'ers shoulder and drawing first blood.

Howling in pain, the PK'er was quick to react and used his free hand to smash down at my now extended arm, causing me to scream and pull out my sword.

_Damn, even his bare fists hurt like a bitch._

"Nice work! I wasn't expecting you to land a hit!" the PK'er wheezed at me through gritted teeth, blood dripping down from the wound in his shoulder.

"Well perhaps you underestimated me then!" I shouted back as I prepared another Sword Skill, my weapon once again taking on a bright light, this time crimson instead of purple.

"Maybe I did!" he roared as he activated a Sword Skill of his own, causing our weapons to clash violently against one another and send shockwaves of power rolling across the ground.

This continued on for some time, with the two of us taking turns swinging and deflecting each other's attacks. The PK'er was good, of that there could be no doubt. We danced around one another, the forest ringing with the sounds of our weapons clashing against each other again and again. Every time I tried to go in and score a hit, he would block my strikes and be ready with a counterattack. It was a dangerous dance, one of life and death, and neither one of us wanted to back down even an inch. We both knew that the first person to give in would be the one to lose the battle.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I managed to score a lucky hit by swinging wildly at his legs, the tip of my sword grazing his thighs and drawing blood. It was a short-lived victory, however, as the PK'er used the opportunity of me dropping my defenses to deliver a blow of his own towards my left shoulder, his Morning star's spikes digging deeply into my skin and tearing it apart as it connected with my body.

"ARGHHHH!"

Screaming in agony, I jumped backwards to put some distance between the two of us. Up in the left corner of my field of view, I saw my health bar dropping down by about 45%, putting me square in the middle of the yellow zone. The PK'er must've seen the horrified look on my face, as he let out a shrill laugh of exhilaration.

"That one looked like it hurt!"

Feeling warm blood flow down my arm and back, I couldn't help but cringe at the thought of how bad the wound must look. The mere notion of it caused an even deeper anger to emerge from within the depths of my mind.

"You motherfucker!" I howled back, flashing my teeth in a primal display of rage as I ran towards him at full speed, my sword outstretched in front of me. He obviously hadn't been expecting me to do that, as his eyes widened in shock and the grip on his club faltered.

"Take this, you son of a bitch!"

Using every ounce of strength left in my body, I thrust my sword forwards, plunging it deep into the PK'ers chest. He let out a gasp of surprise as the cold metal cut through his virtual body and came protruding out of his back, a fountain of blood accompanying it on the way out.

"Agggghrrr…"

Letting his head fall down onto my shoulder, the PK'er whispered in my ear as the last of his hitpoints were depleted.

"You… murderer…"

And then he was gone, his entire body exploding in a brilliant flash of light, leaving behind a few hundred fragments that floated off with the wind.

For a moment, I could do nothing but stand there, breathing heavily as I tried to regain my composure. But then my legs gave out, and I came crashing down to the ground in a painful heap.

"Kirito-kun!"

"Kirito!"

I vaguely registered Asuna and Klein rushing towards me before my world turned black, and I drifted off into unconsciousness.

_I'm sorry, guys… Please… Don't die…_


	9. A Night of Consolation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

**Tokorozawa Central Hospital – Tokyo, Japan**

The snow made a crunching sound underneath her boots as Suguha Kirigaya walked across the parking lot towards the huge hospital looming in the background. Cold December air burned in her throat as she tightened the scarf around her neck, the fleece material prickling lightly against her skin as she did so.

It had been over 2 months since her brother, Kazuto, had booted up the game Sword Art Online for the first time. She still remembered that day, the day everything went wrong. She had come home from Kendo practice, only to find Kazuto laying on his bed with that godforsaken helmet covering his face. At first, she hadn't thought much of it. "Oh, it's launch day, I'll let him play some more. He'll probably stop in time for dinner."

That was before she had turned on the television and seen the news.

In the first couple of days following the launch of Sword Art Online, the Kirigaya family had been in complete disarray. Suguha's father and mother had argued a lot in that time, going back and forth between keeping Kazuto at home and sending him off to a hospital. Finally, they had settled on the latter, and Kazuto had been picked up by an ambulance and sent off to Tokorozawa Central Hospital, where he would be taken care of for as long as he remained alive.

Walking through the front doors of said hospital, Suguha greeted the receptionist with a tired smile before heading towards the nearest elevator. She didn't have to check in with any of the staff working at the hospital anymore, they all knew who she was and who she was here to visit. It had become routine for them at this point, seeing Suguha here.

Pressing the button highlighted "13th Floor", she leaned her back against the wall as the metallic doors slowly closed in front of her, and the elevator started moving upwards.

In the weeks prior to the release of Sword Art Online, the game had been the only thing on Kazuto's mind. Everything that wasn't strictly related to SAO had been completely uninteresting to him. Suguha had honestly found it a bit annoying at times, the way he had refused to talk about anything other than that game. Now though, she would have given anything to have those mundane conversations back.

With the elevator coming to an abrupt stop, the metallic doors finally slid open again, and Suguha walked out into a sterile-looking hallway filled with doors leading in to various patient rooms. One of those doors had the name "Kirigaya" written next to it. That was her destination.

Taking one last deep breath to soothe her jittery nerves, Suguha pushed open the door to her brother's room. As usual, the inside was steeped in darkness, with only the faintest trace of light shining in through the blinds covering the windows.

Closing the door behind her, she touched the motion-activated switch on the wall in order to get the lights on before turning around and pulling away the curtain that was obstructing her view of the large hospital bed. Her eyes immediately landed on Kazuto's frail body, laying there like a corpse with the NerveGear firmly attached to its head. Kazuto had always made it a point to keep himself in good shape, even if he wasn't a part of any of the Sports clubs at school, so Suguha was sure he would've been very upset with the current state of his body, as skinny and malnourished as it had become.

"Good evening, Onii-chan. I've come to visit you again."

She knew she wouldn't get an answer, of course. Kazuto couldn't hear her, after all. His physical body might be here, but his mind most definitely wasn't. The part of his brain that made up his consciousness was someplace far, far away, fighting for its life in a wicked game of death.

"You're looking a lot better than you did two days ago," Suguha half-heartedly joked as she got seated in a chair next to his bed. "Maybe they'll let you leave soon…"

The room they had given him was rather barebones, at least compared to other patient rooms. There was a bed, some machinery to monitor his vitals and a couple of chairs for visitors. Apart from that though, the rest of the room was almost completely barren, save for a single painting, hanging on the wall directly above his bed. The painting depicted a lush farm with fields of wheat stretching as far as the eye could see. Rather ironic, to be honest, considering its stark contrast to the otherwise dull and lifeless surroundings.

"I passed my test with flying colors, by the way. You know, the one I have been dreading for the past 4 months. It felt so good to get the results back, I almost fainted out of happiness," Suguha said, talking to Kazuto about her day-to-day life even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "… You promised me you'd take me to a fancy restaurant if I did well, remember? … Yeah, looks like we might have to postpone that…"

Remembering Kazuto's promise to her caused a fresh wave of sadness to flood her senses, but Suguha doubted she could bring herself to cry. She had been crying so much since that day it felt like she didn't have any more tears to give.

Letting her upper body fall down into the bed, she pushed her head against her brother's torso, her eyes directed downwards.

"… I wonder what you are up to. What you are doing right now. What kind of adventures you're going on in that world, what sights you are seeing, what people you are meeting…"

Turning around, she used one of her hands to gently stroke his shoulder as she listened to him breathe. He kept a slow, rhythmic pace, his chest rising and falling in perfect unison with each breath. It was oddly calming to listen to. Like a constant reminder that her brother was not in fact dead, even if one could easily mistake him to be.

"Come back to me, Onii-chan... No matter what you do, please… please don't die. I don't know what I would do if… if…"

Letting the sentence trail off, Suguha let out a long, shaky breath. She had gotten close to crying again. She was tired of that. The constant sadness. The feeling of impending doom hanging over her every single day. She just wanted her brother back.

"Once you beat this stupid death game, we'll go on all sorts of adventures of our own in this world, right? We'll go to the zoo, the aquarium, the ice-skating rink… heck, maybe we'll even go to a karaoke bar, even though I know you hate singing out loud in front of others…"

Feeling the warmth of his body against her cheek, Suguha allowed herself to dream of a future where everything was back to normal, and where she could talk to her best friend every day. A future without SAO, without the risk of death. It was a beautiful dream, one she would continue to hold on to for many, many months to come.

_Please, Onii-chan. Come back to me… Please…_

* * *

Darkness. An endless veil of black, stretching out in all directions, oddly comforting in its simplicity. The liberating feeling of unconsciousness, where all of the worlds' problems seemed so far away.

Then, distant voices. A mess of sound, penetrating through the darkness. Confusion. There wasn't supposed to be anyone else here. This was my safe space.

Realization. Who am I again? What am I doing here, in this endless void? How long have I been here?

Awakening. The world of darkness being torn to shreds as light and color returned. My mind coming to life, telling me I had to go back. That I had to return to that world. Hesitantly, I obeyed its command.

* * *

**Floor 4 – Forest near Usco Village**

Suddenly, the distant voices and sounds from before grew much louder. Opening my eyelids, I was shocked to find myself staring straight into the hazel-colored eyes of one very familiar female fencer.

"A… Asuna?"

"Ah, finally, you're awake."

Lifting myself up into an upright sitting position, I rubbed the tiredness from my eyes as my senses gradually started returning to me. Judging by my surroundings, we were still in the forest close to Usco Village. But why was I on the ground?

"You had us worried there for a second, man. Just randomly passing out like that!" a voice I quickly recognized to be Klein's said.

"Wait… I passed out?" I asked, looking up at him with a confused expression on my face.

"Yeah, you totally blacked out and went down like a sack of potatoes!" Marco chimed in, smiling as he talked. "Your HP bar wasn't even that low."

"You had a really bad wound in your left shoulder though, but we got that one healed up by force-feeding you a health potion," Argo nodded, gesturing towards my now normal-looking arm.

"But… that doesn't make any sense. I've never heard of any kind of status effect or debuff that knocks you unconscious…" I mumbled, frowning as I tried to recall the last few moments before I had apparently blacked out.

"Maybe it was a lag spike?" Klein shrugged, earning himself a small chuckle from Marco.

"You think I am lagging? Seriously?"

"Hey, you never know! I remember back in the day when we used to play old-school shooters from the West like Counter-Strike that lag was a really big issue!" Klein retorted; his hands held up in a defensive manner.

"Wait, you used to play Counter-Strike? That game is so outdated! How old are you?" Marco laughed, giving Klein a playful slap on the back.

"Old enough to fuck your mom!"

"Okay, that's enough," Asuna sighed, the traces of a smile ghosting across her lips as she did so. "We need to focus on our current situation. Marco, you should contact Kibaou, tell him we… took care of the problem for him."

The mood in our group immediately deteriorated at her words.

"… Yeah, I guess I should do that," Marco responded, opening up his menu with a surprisingly somber expression on his face.

"I forgot to ask, but… did anyone get hurt in the battle just now?" I inquired, the humor from earlier all but gone as the cold realization of what we had just done started to hit me in full.

"Yeah, I took quite a hit, but Asuna managed to Switch with me just in the nick of time. A couple more seconds and I'm not sure what would have happened," Argo answered whilst shooting me a weak smile.

"Oh, it was… nothing… To be honest, I… can't even really remember what happened during the fight. The adrenalin rush was just so intense… I've never experienced anything quite like it," Asuna muttered, her eyes cast downwards. "I guess we're… all murderers now…"

A cold chill ran down my spine as I heard her utter that heinous word. Murderer.

"Asuna…" I started, but she silenced me with a wave of her hand.

"No, Kirito-kun. I know what you are going to say, but… I don't want to hear it. I knew what I was signing up for. If I have to… kill one… in order to protect hundreds… I'll do it."

A brave statement, one that could perhaps be taken as a sign of acceptance, but it was obvious that she was trying her best not to lose it. The way she refused to make eye contact with any of us as she spoke told us her true feelings on the matter. Asuna didn't want to do something like this ever again. And neither did we.

"I think… we should start heading back," Klein finally said after a long pause. "I don't know about you guys, but I really don't want to be… in this place… for any longer than I have to."

The rest of us whole-heartedly agreed with him, and together, we set off on the long journey back to Rovia.

* * *

**Floor 4 – Town of Rovia**

It was late into the evening by the time we finally got back to Rovia, its marble-white buildings and lantern-lit streets a welcome sight to our tired party. Nobody said a word as the "Safe Zone" notification popped up on our HUDs, informing us that we were now inside of the city boundaries. In truth, there was nothing to be said. We all knew that our fight with the PK'ers had been a necessary evil, but that didn't make it any less horrible to think about. We were all murderers now, even if the cursors above our heads were still green, and nothing we said or did was ever going to change that.

One by one, our party gradually started disbanding. Marco was the first one to leave, sending the rest of us a sad smile as he left the party and disappeared down a nearby alley. Klein was next, murmuring something about alcohol and wishing he could get drunk as he stalked off into the night. Argo, sensing that there was nothing more to be done here, timidly walked up to Asuna and gave her a long, comforting hug. The two girls held their arms around one another for longer than what would normally be considered acceptable, but tonight, I doubted anyone would care. Then, once the hug finally ended, she left without a word, retreating into the shadows with the finesse of a highly skilled professional.

That only left me and Asuna, standing there underneath the light of a lantern as the town of Rovia fell into silence around us. It was oddly reminiscent of that time on the Second Floor where she had ended up accompanying me to one of my favorite restaurants, but neither one of us was in the mood for something like that tonight.

"Kirito-kun…" Asuna finally said, breaking the silence and causing my heart to jump in my chest.

"Y-Yeah?"

"We did the right thing today… didn't we?"

Her words hit me like a truck, and I had to take a second to swallow my own emotions before I could answer her.

"… I think so. Those PK'ers… who knows how many more players they would have ended up hurting if we hadn't stepped in. We saved a lot of people by doing what we did. But that… that doesn't mean I don't hate it."

Her entire body seemed to freeze up at my words, and I let out a shaky breath as I continued talking.

"Because I do. I hate it so much that it makes my skin crawl. I hate the pain, the adrenalin rush, the pure **rage** it evokes in me… When I think back on it, I actually feel scared. Scared of myself. Of what I become when I'm in those situations. Of what I'm capable of doing."

Walking closer to me, Asuna stretched out her hand and grabbed the sleeve of my coat. Looking down at her, I saw the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes, and promptly closed my mouth. I didn't want to push any more of my own pain and uncertainty onto Asuna, especially not tonight.

"I feel… the same way. I don't… I don't ever want to do something like that again. I don't want to hurt anyone else, even if they are red players. I just want… to keep everyone safe…" she murmured as her grip on my sleeve tightened. In that moment, she looked so… broken, so lost, that it made me want to throw my arms around her and keep her safe from everyone and everything until the end of time. However, all I could do was nod slowly at her words, hoping she could understand my intentions. I knew that there was nothing I could say that would help. This was a matter that was between Asuna and her own mind, and thus, it was not my battle to fight.

"Kirito-kun… Will you… please stay with me tonight? … I don't think… I want to be alone right now…"

Although her words could easily be misinterpreted, I knew that there was nothing inherently sexual or romantic about the request. Asuna, in her current state, simply wanted someone to be there for her. Which was also the reason I managed to keep my cool and not completely lose it.

"… If that is what you want, then… of course I will…"

A small light flickered in her eyes for just a moment, before disappearing again just as rapidly. The sadness that was currently ravaging her mind would not be soothed by something as simple as human contact. The only thing I dared hope for was that my presence might make it a bit more tolerable.

"Then… let's go…" she muttered, pulling me along by the sleeve as the two of us started walking towards the inn she was staying at.

* * *

**Floor 4 – "The Travelling Merchant" – Town of Rovia**

"Here we are…"

Coming to a stop in front of one of the many wooden doors lining the hallway, Asuna tapped the door with one finger, a small window popping into existence in front of her as she did so. Pressing the blue circle, the window disappeared again, and I heard the sound of a lock opening as she pushed open the door and dragged me with her inside.

The room itself was nothing special. It contained a large, queen-sized bed, two nightstands, a table with a wooden chair and a wardrobe for aesthetic purposes (there was no need for wardrobes in SAO, as players kept all their belongings in their inventory at all times). Moonlight flooded in through a large window overlooking the street, illuminating the interior with a silvery-white glow.

Letting go of my sleeve, Asuna walked over to the left side of the bed and sat down. Sending her a curious look, I watched as she opened her menu and unequipped her rapier and armor, her body enveloped in blue light as she changed from normal field gear into a white nightgown that stretched to her knees.

The sight of her caused my cheeks to burn with embarrassment, but I promptly ignored it as I opened my own menu and followed her example. I made sure to keep ample clothing equipped, however, as I didn't want her to misinterpret my intentions. Wandering over to the other side of the bed, I sat down with a heavy thud, my heart beating rapidly in my chest.

I was about to share a bed with a girl for the first time in my life. And even though I knew the circumstances surrounding it were not in any way, shape or form sexual in nature, I couldn't help but feel strangely restless as I lowered my head onto the pillow and moved my body under the covers. Asuna must've been feeling equally as embarrassed as me, as she shifted awkwardly around in an attempt to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

For the longest time, a deep silence permeated the room, with each of us staying on our respective sides of the bed without saying a word to one another. Then, Asuna finally spoke up, breaking the tension that had begun to form.

"Uhm… Kirito-kun…?"

Turning around to face her, I tried my best to put up a brave front and hide the nervousness I was feeling.

"Y-Yeah?"

"Thank you… for this..."

"Oh, n-no sweat. I didn't really want to be on my own tonight either, so in a way, I'm happy you asked me to come here," I responded honestly, my face slowly turning a nice shade of crimson. Asuna was also blushing at this point, but instead of being bashful about it, she put on a surprisingly determined face as she inched closer to my side of the bed.

"…"

Before I even realized what was happening, Asuna had closed the distance between us and pushed her forehead up against my chest. For a moment, I sat in petrified silence, afraid to move as my mind struggled to cope with the sensation of having a girl this close to me. But then, I gradually started lowering my arms until I finally had them snaked around Asuna's warm back. Allowing herself to be moved, I pulled her lithe form against my own, holding her in a soft embrace.

"… I promise I'll be strong again tomorrow. So just for tonight… allow me to be weak," the chestnut-haired fencer whispered into my chest, causing a shiver to run up my spine.

"That's okay. I won't judge you," I whispered back, closing my eyes as I talked. "We all need to feel weak every now and again."

No more words were exchanged between the two of us from that point onwards. We simply stayed like that in silence until we both fell asleep, holding around one another and reveling in the feeling of having another human being there to comfort us.

* * *

Opening my eyes slowly, I gave them ample time to adjust to my surroundings. Wooden walls. A huge window. A queen-sized bed. For a moment, I was confused. This didn't look like the room I had rented earlier? But then, yesterday's events came flooding back to me, causing a huge blush to appear on my face. This didn't look like my room because it **wasn't** my room. It was Asuna's room. And that could only mean one thing.

Directing my gaze downwards and to the right, I saw one pair of hazel-colored eyes staring back at me. Asuna had apparently woken up before me and put some distance between the two of us, as she was now laying on her side of the bed again. This change had to be recent, however, as I could still feel her warmth lingering on my arm and chest.

"G-Good morning, Asuna," I managed to squeak out, measuring her reaction to my words.

"Good morning," she replied evenly, pushing herself up from the bed before turning around and opening her menu. Watching her move, I could already tell that the vulnerable Asuna from yesterday was all but gone now.

"Let me just get this out of the way," she said as she started equipping her usual gear from her inventory. "You talk about what happened here yesterday, I kill you."

I gulped in trepidation as I realized where she was going with this. Oh yes, normal Asuna was definitely back.

"You talk about how we ended up sleeping in the same bed together, I kill you."

Another gulp.

"You talk about how we ended up sleeping in the same **room** together, I kill you."

A quick nod this time.

"You talk about anything that is even remotely related to this particular incident, I kill you. Am I making myself clear?"

"Y-Yes, madam."

"Good."

Rising from the bed, she shot a quick glance back at me before gesturing towards the door leading out of the room.

"Well then, what are you waiting for? Get changed already! I really hope you aren't planning on going to the frontlines dressed like **that**!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is actually markedly shorter than my previous ones, for obvious reasons. It is largely what one could consider a "filler chapter", but I felt like it had to be written to flesh out the growing relationship between Kirito and Asuna. I also wanted to give you a peek into the situation in the real world, as I feel way too many fanfics gloss over the fact that this whole death game thing is actually happening in REAL time, and that there are REAL people waiting on the outside.
> 
> As a side note, the reason the Anti-Criminal Code didn't activate when Kirito and Asuna got all "touchy-feely" towards the end there is because both of them desired the physical contact and didn't have any problems with it. If either one of them had any reservations about it, the system would have intervened. But, as fate would have it, they didn't.


	10. Boss Fights and Bathhouses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.
> 
> Warning: Adult / sexual themes are present in this chapter. Proceed at your own risk (lol).

In the days and weeks following our battle with the group of PK'ers, a lot happened. The Assault Team made quick progress of the Labyrinth, and managed to defeat the Floor Boss of the Fourth Floor, " **Wythege the Hippocampus** ", with relative ease thereafter due to special information provided by Asuna and Marco who had undertaken the Elf War Campaign quests. Defeating that monster opened the way to the Fifth Floor, taking us into a brand-new area that brought with it a new mechanic that had also been there in the Beta Test: "Relic Hunting". Scattered about the Fifth Floor were several relics which could be picked up and sold to NPC shops for Col. This turned out to be a lot more addicting than one would've perhaps initially expected, and thus, treasure hunting suddenly became everyone's favorite pastime activity. In fact, this little fun mechanic turned out to be so profitable that even some members of the Assault Team chose to drop out momentarily just so they could focus 100 percent on tracking down relics.

Our little group also fell prey to this new obsession, but luckily enough for us, we had 2 former beta testers among our ranks. Both Argo and Marco had spent a considerable amount of time on this Floor during the Beta Test, and as such, they knew about a couple of "hidden" zones where the spawn rates for relics were exponentially higher than normal. This naturally resulted in us spending a couple of days camping these areas so we could farm up some Col, which in turn helped us upgrade our equipment and buy more supplies.

Sadly, it was also around this time that our relative anonymity started dissipating rapidly. Without intending to, we had gradually become a point of discussion amongst the top players in the game, as rumors of an "unorthodox group of "elite" players" had started spreading like wildfire. Before we could make heads or tails of the situation, our party went from being completely unknown to being considered one of the major forces working to clear the game, right up there with the ALS (Aincrad Liberation Squad) and the DKB (Dragon Knights Brigade). What set us apart from them though, was that we technically weren't a guild. We were simply a group of friends playing in a party together, which made us even more of an oddity on the frontlines.

This was not helped by the fact that we were now way above the average player in terms of both levels and equipment. Our solo-fight against the Field Boss of the Second Floor combined with our run-in with the group of PK'ers on the Fourth Floor had resulted in a massive EXP and Col boost that had pushed us right up to the top of the playerbase in terms of raw strength. Needless to say, we were still no match for the two major guilds, as they had way more members and resources than us, but despite this we suddenly found ourselves receiving quite a lot of respect from fellow Assault Team members.

In the weeks following all of this, our little group of 5 would be present at every subsequent Floor Boss Raid, further cementing our position as an elite division amongst the frontliners. Soon, we were included in guild debates regarding loot and EXP distribution, and introduced to the two most important players currently working to clear the death game known as SAO: Lind of the DKB and Kibaou of the ALS.

Right from the get-go, it was made clear to us that tensions were high between the two guilds. Kibaou did not particularly like Lind, and Lind did not particularly like Kibaou. This simple fact would often lead to vigorous bouts of discussion where the two would refuse to acknowledge the others' viewpoint, in a situation that could only be described as "unstoppable force meets immovable object".

Our little party therefore quickly became the intermediary between these two guilds, seeking to find compromises that could work for both sides. Our own relationship with them mattered little, as we mostly stuck to ourselves and avoided meddling in their affairs beyond what was strictly necessary.

To my great annoyance, however, **I** had somehow become the "unofficial leader" of our little party, which meant that it was now suddenly **my** responsibility to negotiate with the other two leaders. This was greatly uncomfortable for me, as I wasn't exactly the best "public speaker" outside of life-and-death situations, resulting in some rather awkward discussions and conversations.

Despite this, however, I just about managed to get by, and before I knew it, we had made our way to the Seventh Floor of Aincrad, facing an unexpected future as we continued to progress through the world of SAO.

* * *

**Floor 7 – Palace of Dreams**

Deep inside a particular haunted mansion on the Seventh Floor, the Assault Team was currently busy fighting their strongest adversary yet: the Field Boss of said Floor. " **Stella the Haunted Witch** " was her name, and she was a monster of the Astral type. Ghosts and the supernatural was the theme of the Seventh Floor, after all, so it only made sense.

Her appearance was that of a fair maiden with lush, grey hair that flowed down her slender back in waves. She was tall, taller than any normal person could ever be, but that was to be expected given her status as a Field Boss. If one looked at her from the back and ignored her abnormal height, one would be forgiven to think of her as beautiful. But once she turned around, any such notion would immediately disappear from your head, as her face was not that of a human, but that of a disfigured lion.

Rushing towards the Field Boss, I bellowed out a roar as I allowed the System Assist to kick in, letting it guide my body towards my target. The large ghost instinctively switched its attention over to me, its hollow eyes narrowing in concentration as it started channeling a spell to interrupt me. A slight smile formed on my face as I realized it wouldn't have enough time to prevent the attack.

"Raaaah!"

Letting the Sword Skill activate, I watched with detached amusement as my blade slashed a diagonal line across the large monsters' abdomen, followed up by a rapid thrust that dealt extra damage. The ghost wailed in anguish; its haunting face scrunched up in pain as the metal cut through its ephemeral skin. There was no blood, obviously. It was a ghost after all. But the attack had dealt a considerable amount of damage nonetheless, as indicated by its health bar dropping considerably lower.

"Hey, what do you think you're doin', Kirito?!" a boisterous voice suddenly rang out, causing me to let out a grunt of annoyance. Kibaou. That annoying prick. Wasn't it very obvious what I was doing?

"I'm trying to help you kill the boss, dumbass!" I shouted back, quickly retreating to the backline as soon as the cooldown timer for using a Sword Skill expired. "Your team isn't doing enough damage!"

"What was that!? We're doing way more damage than you guys!"

"Hah! In your dreams!" Klein snickered in reply, dashing swiftly towards the left side of the boss, his katana shining a deep shade of crimson as it cut into her unprotected flank. "You know we're stronger than you in terms of both levels and gear!"

"That's only cause' you're cheating, you filthy Beater!"

Maneuvering my way through my menu, I pulled forth a health potion as my teammates all went on the defensive, getting ready to dodge the boss's soon-to-come AoE attacks.

"Kibaou, pay attention! Don't lose focus all the time! We said we'd give this one to you guys and we actually keep our promises!" Asuna chimed in, using a flurry of quick jabs to finish off her own opponent, a smaller minion that looked like a miniature version of the boss itself.

"I'll even give ya some juicy information free of charge if you stop zoning out!" Argo smiled as she pulled the aggro of 2 ads, dodging their attacks with ease due to her high Agility stat.

"Grrr… Aincrad Liberation Squad! Let's finish this! Next opportunity we get, we go all in!"

_Finally…_

Having regained most of my health, I barked out an order and Switched positions with Marco, whose health bar had dropped dangerously low. He gracefully retreated to the back in order to heal up, glad to be out of harms way. There was no magic or healer class in SAO after all, so the only way to regain health was to either wait for it to recover, or retreat from combat to use a health potion. That was why Switching was such an important mechanic. It allowed you to disengage from combat by having a partner step in for you.

"Watch out everyone! The boss is about to do something!"

Asuna's warning rung out loud and clear over the battlefield, and most of the attacking players immediately fell back as they heard it. There were, however, a few strays who either didn't hear it or didn't care who chose to continue attacking, causing me to do a mental facepalm.

_I swear to God, some of these idiots really do have a death wish._

Acting on impulse, I rushed forwards to grab the collar of one such player, who was too transfixed on attacking the boss to notice the ability she was charging up. Yanking him backwards with great force, I managed to pull him out of harms way just in the nick of time as the boss unleashed her signature ability, " _ **Tidalwave of Horror**_ ".

An enormous wave of dark mist spread out in a circle from the boss, rushing towards the unsuspecting players who had been too stupid to heed Asuna's warning. Their bodies disappearing from view, we watched with grim apprehension as we heard them scream, their health bars dropping more and more the longer they stayed within the mist's area-of-effect. Some managed to make it out before the smoke killed them, others… were not so lucky. By the time the mist finally cleared, the Assault Team had lost 3 important members forever, their minds being shattered as their avatars died and the NerveGear fried their brains.

"Fucking hell…" Marco swore, shaking his head furiously at the stupidity of it all. "Dying to such an easily avoidable attack… Idiots, all of them…"

Around us, screams of grief and anger could be heard as guild members and friends mourned the death of their comrades. I could only begin to imagine the pain they must be feeling. Losing someone dear to you in such a brutal, unfair way… It was honestly just too cruel.

Turning around, I sent Kibaou a hard stare. I wanted him to feel every ounce of my anger and disappointment. We had promised the ALS the Last Attack bonus from this boss, but they had yet to deliver the decisive blow. The fight had been going on for nearly 40 minutes at this point, and so far, our little party of 5 had easily dealt more damage than anyone else. In other words, the other parties really needed to step up their game. This battle could not be allowed to drag on for much longer. We had already taken heavy casualties, after all.

"D-Don't lose hope, men! We are taking this thing down! For our fallen comrades!"

The voice belonged to Lind, the leader of the DKB (Dragon Knights Brigade). He was a tall, lanky man with long blue hair and silver armor that had an air of elegance about him. His sword of choice was a scimitar called **[Pale Edge]** which he had upgraded to _+5_ , making it a formidable weapon.

After the death of the self-proclaimed Knight Diavel on the First Floor, Lind had chosen to found his own guild with the deceased players' "title" included in its name, no doubt as a means to honor the man's legacy and way of life. The DKB had since grown into one of the largest guilds in the game, and was now a force to be reckoned with. They were present at every Floor Boss Raid, and were in constant competition with Kibaou's guild, the ALS.

"Lind, I want you to take all of your men and attack the boss from the right side! Kibaou will go at it from the left, and my party will draw the aggro by facing it head on. That way, it can't attack all of us at the same time!"

Informing them of my intentions, I was surprised to see how quickly both Lind and Kibaou accepted my plan. Usually, they would have denied any such suggestion and been at each other's throats instantly, but now, they seemed more than willing to set aside their differences if it meant putting an end to this fight. The sight of their comrades dying must have had a bigger impact on them than I had originally thought.

Letting out roars of anger, both parties rushed towards the boss from their respective sides, a blinding range of color lighting up the arena as a multitude of Sword Skills went off all at once. Deciding we couldn't just leave them to it, I instructed my party members to follow up, and together, we assaulted the boss from the front, drawing its attention towards us so the others could focus on doing as much damage as possible. Utilizing this strategy, it didn't take long before the boss was finally defeated, with Kibaou from the ALS getting the Last Attack bonus as promised.

Sitting down on the ground with an exhausted sigh, I let my eyes wander across the battlefield as the sound of trumpets filled my ears. We had successfully defeated the Field Boss of the Seventh Floor, and yet, there were no cheers or shouts of happiness to be heard. Most looked downtrodden or sad as they passively checked on their rewards, absentmindedly noting the EXP and Col they got for participating in the fight.

It had been a hard-fought victory, but the rewards did not outweigh the costs. We had simply lost too many. We all knew it could not continue like this. If it did, there would soon be no one left to fight at the frontlines.

"We won the battle, but lost the war, huh?" Klein muttered from somewhere behind me, receiving sad looks in response.

"… People need to start listening to call-outs. There's no point to all of this if you just go ahead and get yourself killed in the end…" Marco sighed, massaging his tired shoulders as he spoke. "Our teamwork needs to be a lot better if we're even gonna stand a chance at getting out of here."

"Getting out of here? If it continues like this, we'll be lucky if we manage to make it to the Twentieth Floor, much less the One-Hundredth..." I murmured to myself, not feeling the least bit optimistic about our chances. It didn't help if **our** group was strong. We couldn't clear Floor Bosses on our own, after all. We needed the Assault Team. We needed each other.

"Oh chin up, will ya Kii-boy? No need to be such a party pooper!" Argo smiled as she approached me, playfully bumping a fist into my shoulder. "Sure, things might not be lookin' so good right now, but who knows what's gonna happen in the future, right? Don't forget that it took us over a month to get past the First Floor."

"Ahh... Yeah, you're right, Argo, I just... Well, this battle really took it out of me."

A moment of silence descended upon our group at my words, before Asuna suddenly broke it seconds later.

"Well, if you're feeling worn out... I might have just the thing."

We all fixed her with confused looks as a small smile started forming in the corner of her mouth.

* * *

After trading a couple of words with Lind and Kibaou, Asuna led our group of 5 out of the haunted mansion and back towards the main city of the Seventh Floor. All around us, black spruce trees coated in a thick veil of fog blocked our vision, making it difficult to navigate. The entire Seventh Floor was like this, plunged in constant dusk and filled with vicious fog. It made for a scary experience should one decide to head out of the main city alone, and I inwardly found myself feeling grateful for the fact that I was no longer a solo player. It wouldn't have been good for my mental health to walk around these haunted woods without anyone watching my back.

"Only a little bit further, you guys," Asuna reassured us as we traversed across the creepy terrain, every step bringing us closer and closer to the main city of Marena. A short while later, we finally spotted the first sign of civilization. Up ahead, I could make out the faint light of the lanterns, signaling the start of a Safe Zone. Once we finally crossed its borders, we all let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Man, I really, REALLY hate this Floor," Marco exhaled, sheathing his sword with the precise movements of someone who had done it a million times before. "I can't wait to get out of here once we finally take down the Floor Boss."

"You don't HAVE to stay here, you know," Klein commented, sending him a satirical stare. "You can just take the Teleport Gate down to the Town of Beginnings if you want to. I hear they've set up an orphanage for kids down there, maybe you could try your luck there."

"Ha ha, very funny Klein."

"I know, right? When I was a kid, I used to dream about being a stand-up comedian."

"Thank God that dream never became a reality."

"Oh, shut up."

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Klein put on a petulant face as he talked. "I would've been a great comedian..."

"Anyway, if you guys are done messing around, let's get going! There's a ba... an inn waiting for us!" Asuna chimed in, gesturing towards the road ahead of us.

"Yeah yeah, we're coming..." Marco answered, letting out a sigh as we once again resumed our trek.

A couple of minutes later, Asuna came to a stop again in front of a large wooden building. It was unlike anything I had seen in Aincrad up to this point, constructed to look like a Viking longhouse from the medieval era. Despite this obvious connection to Viking culture however, it fit surprisingly well with its surroundings, blending in with the thick forest and vivid scenery.

"Uhhh, Asuna? Why did you bring us here?" Klein asked, staring at the building in confusion.

"Just wait until we get inside and you'll realize why!" she responded, already heading towards the entrance in front of us. Shrugging my shoulders, I followed after her as she walked, deciding to wait with passing judgment until I knew what it was she had taken us to.

Entering the building after Asuna, I was surprised to see what looked like a medieval hotel lobby on the other side, with a young, female NPC receptionist standing behind a wooden desk that had been carefully decorated with rune carvings and streaks of white paint.

"Welcome to The Weary Traveller Inn and Bath! What can I help you with?" the girl asked, smiling at us as we walked up to her.

"We would like access to the bath-area, please!" Asuna answered, nodding her head ever so slightly as she spoke.

"Access to the baths costs 300 Col per person, and requires you to pay up-front before you enter. Once you're inside, you can stay there for as long as you like, but once you leave you cannot reenter without paying the entrance fee again."

"Sounds good to me!"

Pressing the circle-button on the menu that popped up in front of her, Asuna watched with a gleeful expression as 300 Col was deducted from her overall balance, and the NPC bowed to her in gratitude. Turning around, she slapped her hand lightly against my shoulder as she walked past me, heading for one of the three doors that lead further into the building.

Bathing was one of Asuna's favorite things to do in SAO, so I should have realized where she was taking us the instant she took the reins. Letting out a sigh, I reserved myself to my fate and walked up to the NPC clerk, the idea of slipping into a warm bath permeating my mind.

* * *

 _Which way did the clerk say I had to go again?_ I pondered to myself as I walked through the wooden hallways of the longhouse, equipped with nothing but a towel hanging around my waist. _I know it was in this direction, but where do I enter..._

Arriving at the end of the corridor, I was presented with a choice: two entryways, one covered by a red cloth and one covered by a blue cloth. Scratching my head in confusion, I took a moment to consider which way to choose. At first glance, it was easy to presume that red meant "women" and blue meant "men", but seeing as this bathhouse was clearly inspired by Viking culture, I was unsure if such common deductions would still be applicable. Maybe Vikings had different colors for the genders?

As I was considering this, I suddenly heard the sound of footsteps coming from the hallway behind me, jogging my mind into making a decision. I didn't want to be seen wearing nothing but a towel after all, so I quickly entered through the blue entryway, walking with haste towards the light up ahead. As I came closer to it, a surge of warm air hit my naked skin, causing the hair on my arms to stand up.

Emerging into the bath, I couldn't help but gasp at the sight in front of me. The room was steeped in mist and filled with clean yet cloudy water that stretched on for dozens of meters. Small artificial waterfalls created from multiple faucets that were attached to the wooden walls dotted the space in-between, continually spewing out hot water. A huge rock had been placed in the middle, acting both as a backrest and as a decoration. In short, it looked like paradise to my tired eyes, and I could already feel my body aching with desire to just lay down and relax.

Walking over to the edge of the pool, I allowed myself to slip into the water's warm embrace, a small sigh of satisfaction escaping my lips as I did so. The hot temperature and light caress of the water pushing against my skin felt indescribably good, and I couldn't help but appreciate Asuna all the more for it. I would have to thank her personally for this the next time I saw her.

Waddling further into the bath and submerging myself all the way up to my shoulders, I rested my back against the side of the huge rock in the middle, feeling more relaxed than I had in weeks.

_Man, Asuna really has it figured out. This is super nice!_

Closing my eyes, I allowed my thoughts to wander aimlessly as I basked in the therapeutic sensation of the hot water pushing against my body. I don't know how long I stayed like that, relaxing with my mind adrift, but it must've been for quite a while. Then, I suddenly heard the sound of two voices approaching me from somewhere amidst the sea of mist.

 _Ahh, that must be the other guys_ , I thought to myself as I opened my eyes, a smile forming on my face as their voices came closer and closer. But it wasn't before that very moment that I suddenly realized that something was very, very wrong here. The voices coming towards me didn't sound like they belonged to any male players I knew. They were way too light in pitch and tone for that. No, these sounded like they belonged to females. Which could only mean one thing...

_**FUCK.** _

Swiftly retreating to the other side of the huge rock, I held in a shriek of surprise as my mind immediately kicked into overdrive, analyzing the situation from every possible angle. Somehow, I had managed to make my way into the **women's bath** instead of the men's bath. This horrifying realization made my heart beat thrice as fast in my chest, and caused panic to start welling up in my body. If the two girls found me here... well, I didn't even want to think about what would happen then.

"Man, coming here was a great idea, Asuna! I can feel the tension leavin' my body already!" the very female voice of Argo said somewhere behind me, shattering my thought-process. They were here. Oh sweet merciful God they were HERE!

"Ehehehe~ Don't mention it, Argo. I love baths like these, so bringing you guys here was really just beneficial for me!"

"Aha... Still though, I can't believe I've never been to this place before! I mean, I obviously knew about its existence. I'm an Information Dealer after all! But I have never actually bothered visiting before now."

"Well, you're here now!"

**_SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT._ **

As the two girls continued their casual conversation with one another, I was currently busy trying my best not to die of a panic-induced heart attack. This situation was beyond crazy. What the fuck was I supposed to do?! Just sit here until they decided to leave again? Could I really remain undetected for that long?

"I think I'll head over to one of those "waterfalls" to rinse my hair for a bit. I'll be right back, Asuna!" Argo suddenly exclaimed, causing my blood to freeze in my veins. Argo was on the move? That meant she might spot me!

Taking a deep breath, I ducked down into the water as fast as I could, making sure every part of my body was completely submerged. I had to try and stay underwater for as long as possible! That was the only solution I could see!

I held my breath for as long as I could, until my lungs felt like they were on fire and my throat screamed out for oxygen. But eventually, I had to give in. Breaching the surface, I started gulping down mouthfuls of air, the sound of my heartbeat filling my ears as I did so. When I finally regained enough oxygen to feel somewhat normal again, I rubbed the leftover water from my eyes and slowly opened my eyelids.

I just about managed to hold back a scream of surprise as I saw Argo standing there right in front of me, her eyes shining with interest and her mouth twisted into a mischievous smile. She was entirely naked, her petite figure only partially obscured by the mist that hung in the air, and I felt my eyes instinctually dip down to her modest breasts, my mind turning to mush as I did so.

For a moment, I was convinced her next move would be to either scream or equip her weapons. But instead, she drifted closer to me, placing her hands on my tense shoulders and leaning in, her mouth now hovering right next to my left ear.

"Like what'cha see, Kii-boy?"

Her seductive whisper caused chills to run down the entire length of my body, and I could do nothing but stammer helplessly in response.

"Sneaking into the women's bath... What a naughty boy you are..."

Before my mind managed to register what was happening, she had situated herself on my lap and wrapped her slender arms around my neck, her brown eyes locking onto mine with playful intensity. The feeling of her skin rubbing against my own nearly drove me insane, and despite my best efforts, I could feel a certain... part of me beginning to swell in size.

"Y'know, I wonder how Asuna would react if she saw us right now..."

Her words hit my hormone-riddled brain like a bucket of cold water, and managed to bring me back to reality, if only just for a moment.

"No, please, Argo... You can't tell her anything, she'll **kill me**!"

"Hmm..."

Stroking my bare chest with one hand, she shifted around in my lap, pushing herself even closer to me than before. A groan of pleasure escaped my lips as I felt her breasts push up against my body.

"Please, stop..." I muttered weakly, my mental fortitude crumbling to dust as I spoke. This was simply too much for my teenage brain to handle.

"Stop...? But you're clearly enjoyin' yourself," she whispered back, referring to my now thoroughly erect member which was currently pushing up against her backside.

"That's... I can't help it when you do something like this..."

"I know, Kii-boy. Who said I had a problem with it?"

Looking at her, I couldn't help but quiver as I noticed the pure level of lust shining from her eyes. I had never expected Argo to be so forward. I mean, sure, she would occasionally jump into my arms when she felt like it (like she had done in front of everyone on the Second Floor), but that was something completely different from this. This... what she was doing here... was miles above any of that.

"We shouldn't... be doing this. Especially not here... of all places," I breathed, mustering up every last ounce of willpower I had left before gently pushing her away from me. For a moment, a look of surprise mixed with genuine disappointment flashed across her face. Then, she seemingly regained her composure and pouted at me, her usual personality returning as the sexual tension deescalated.

"Aww, you're no fun, Kii-boy..."

Letting out a shaky breath to calm my now utterly frayed nerves, I placed my hands over my nether regions, covering up my pulsating tool out of shame. Argo didn't seem to care about such things, however, as she stood up in plain view, allowing me to see every inch of her sun-kissed skin.

"I'll head back and make sure Asuna doesn't go anywhere else before we leave. Until then, you stay right here, and don't make a sound, okay? I'll let this be... our little secret," she smiled, making sure to keep her voice as quiet as possible so it wouldn't alert Asuna.

Nodding in response, I softly expressed my heartfelt gratitude to her before she moved away, waddling back over to the other side of the rock where Asuna was waiting for her.

"Oh, there you are Argo! You were gone for so long that I started wondering if you'd fallen asleep or something."

"Nahhh, the running water just felt so good that I completely lost track of time! I'm back to spend some more quality time with you now though! Have I ever mentioned how unfair it is that you get to have such nice boobs by the way, Asuna?"

"Ehhhh?!"

The next 20 minutes felt like the longest 20 minutes of my life, as I sat there hunched behind the rock listening to their conversation. Once they finally decided to leave, I waited an additional couple of minutes before I made my move, my thoughts a jumbled mess as I practically ran out of the bath.

_What in the world just happened?!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So that got kinda spicy towards the end there, huh? I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. I've always felt that, out of all the SAO characters, Argo would probably be the one to have the highest "sex-drive". I don't know why, I've just always had that feeling. Her personality also lends itself very well to smut-writing, so there's that.
> 
> I want to make it abundantly clear, however, that I have no intention of shipping Kirito x Argo in this story. I firmly believe that Asuna is best girl, and thus, a relationship between her and Kirito is a given. In other words, Kirito will NEVER fall in love with any girl that is NOT Asuna. When and how Asuna and Kirito's relationship takes form, however, is still very much up in the air. So hypothetically speaking, this means Kirito COULD have encounters with other girls BEFORE he starts dating Asuna. But ultimately, it will be Kirito x Asuna, and I'm sorry if that disappoints some of you.


	11. A New Face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

**Floor 4 – "Lisbeth's Workshop" – Town of Rovia**

With a sigh of satisfaction, Rika Shinozaki, going by the name of "Lisbeth" here in the world of Aincrad, placed down the heavy hammer she had in her hands on the counter next to her. She had been hard at work for almost 8 hours straight now, and it was almost time to close down the shop. It had been a busy day today, with tons of players coming in to repair their gear, buy premade weapons and place custom orders. She had gained a considerable amount of Blacksmithing EXP because of it, and thus, felt very justified in calling it a day.

_If I can keep this up, I might just reach Blacksmithing Level 35 within the end of the week…_

Walking over to the entrance and opening the door, she flipped the sign hanging on its exterior around 180 degrees, switching to the side that had the word "Closed" written on it. With that, she had officially closed down her shop for the day, meaning she would get no more customers until tomorrow. Feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders, she couldn't help but smile as she turned to face the small, but lovable room she called her workshop.

A wooden counter was placed at the back, decorated by a white and blue tablecloth. Next to it was a lone door leading in to the backroom, where she kept her anvil and crafting materials. Lining the walls were glass display cases that showcased all the different premade weapons she currently had up for sale, illuminated by a large chandelier hanging from the roof, bathing the interior in comfortable, orange-ish light. It was by no means luxurious or expensive-looking, but it was hers, and she was damn proud of it.

Lisbeth had come a long way from the days when it was just her and a simple wooden stall on the streets of Urbus on the Second Floor. Back then, she had barely made enough Col to keep her business afloat, living every day on the verge of poverty as she struggled to make ends meet. It had been a tough time, with a lot of uncertainty and self-doubt. But somehow, she had managed to get by, and slowly but surely built up a small customer base as her skills improved.

_I've done surprisingly well for myself. On some level, I guess I still can't believe I've managed to make it this far. Ever since that godforsaken day, I've always thought that… that…_

Shaking her head, she removed the thought from her mind, determined not to linger on such negative sentiments. Nothing good would come from recalling how she had been back then. What she had once considered doing.

Brushing away a stray lock of pink hair, she took one last look at her beloved shop before turning to walk out the door. Right as she was about to grasp its handle, however, it suddenly swung open, revealing a lone, young-looking swordsman.

On first glance, he appeared to be rather ordinary, sporting medium-length black hair and onyx eyes. Yet for some reason, Lisbeth couldn't quite bring herself to stop staring at him. There was just something about his appearance that seemed strangely recognizable. As if she had met him somewhere before… or something along those lines.

"Uhh… excuse me, but… do you usually stare at all of your customers this way?" the swordsman suddenly said, a faint blush visible on his cheeks. Realizing she was being rude, Lisbeth immediately pulled herself out of her trance and bowed her head in apology to the young man.

"I'm so sorry, I just… completely spaced out. I didn't mean anything by it!"

"Oh… you don't have to apologize, it just surprised me a little!"

Lifting her head, she made eye contact with the unknown player in front of her, his onyx eyes meeting hers with a look that was equal parts confused and apologetic. For some reason, he seemed to think **he** was the one who had done something wrong here, and not her.

"Well, I hate to tell you this so soon after rudely staring at you like that, but I just closed down shop for the day. If you want to buy anything or place a custom order then you'll have to come back tomorrow I'm afraid," Lisbeth said, honestly feeling a little bad for the guy. If he had been here 5 minutes earlier then she probably would have helped him, but closing time was closing time, even in the world of Aincrad.

"Ahh, really? Well, damn… I don't think I have the time to spare tomorrow. I'm heading into the Labyrinth with my party you see, and I really need to get some maintenance done on my sword before then," the young man answered, looking more than a little conflicted.

"Oh, you mean the Labyrinth on this Floor? I've heard it's great for farming, plus you don't have to fear accidentally running into a Boss monster or anything, seeing as the Assault Team cleared it out ages ago," Lisbeth commented, regarding the player in front of her with newfound interest. He was trying to improve himself and level up, huh? It was an admirable goal, one she wished she had the strength to pursue herself.

"Yeah, I would know. I helped them clear it, after all," the swordsman nodded matter-of-factly, instantly shutting down Lisbeth's entire train of thought.

"W…W-What did you just say?" she stammered; her eyes wide in shock.

"Uhh… that I helped them clear it?" he responded, looking thoroughly confused. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

"But… that would mean… you're a member of the Assault Team?!" Lisbeth damn near shouted, causing the young man to visibly recoil.

"Y-Yes?"

"… Hot damn. An actual frontliner, right here in my shop. What do you know…"

Growing more uncomfortable by the second, the player awkwardly shifted his weight around from one foot to the other, swaying nervously as Lisbeth regarded him with a fascinated expression on her face. It was obvious he didn't enjoy getting such special attention from her, but at that moment, she couldn't bring herself to stop staring. He was the first member of the Assault Team to ever visit her shop, after all.

"So, what guild are you with? The DKB? The ALS? Or maybe even some other guild I've never heard of before?" Lisbeth asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Well, I'm not… really with a guild, per se. We're more like a party than a guild," he responded, refusing to make eye contact as he talked. His reply did little to soothe her interest.

"A party fighting on the frontlines? That isn't even associated with a guild?... That's really something. You guys must be crazy strong," she whistled, devouring this new piece of information like a juicy slab of meat. Now that she thought about it, she did vaguely recall hearing rumors about one specific party that was apparently always present at every Floor Boss Raid, fighting together as one cohesive unit despite not being affiliated with any guild. Was this guy one of the members that made up that party?

"I don't know if I'd call us strong… we've just been exposed to things that gave us a huge advantage over the others. Things I wouldn't wish on any other person," he suddenly said, a pained expression flashing across his face. Lisbeth didn't know how, but the instant she noticed it, she instinctually knew she probably shouldn't try to dig too deeply into that. It was obviously something the young man really didn't want to talk about.

"Oh… okay…" she responded solemnly, deciding to stop questioning him. "I won't ask. But still… a frontliner… right here, in front of me. That's pretty wild… Why didn't you lead with that? Now that I know you're one of **them** , I can't in good faith send you away without helping you first, can I?"

Taking a step to the side, she gestured with her free arm towards the interior of her quaint little shop.

"Welcome to Lisbeth's Workshop! Your number one destination for all things Blacksmithing!"

The young man gave her a curt nod before walking past her into the building, surveying the small room she called her workplace with detached amusement.

"Looks like you're doing fairly well for yourself, huh," he commented as he inspected the different weapons she kept on display.

"Well... business has been going great lately, but it wasn't always like this. I had to work really hard to get to where I am now," Lisbeth responded, walking around him to take her place behind the counter.

"I can believe that. I remember how it was when we were still on the Second Floor. All of the Support Players like yourself were running their businesses from crude wooden stalls. It must've been difficult making a living back then."

"Oh you have no idea," she responded with a pained smile, leaning up against the wall as she spoke. "I was barely making enough Col to keep myself alive. It totally sucked."

A moment of silence passed then, before the young man spoke up again.

"I'm sorry."

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry... for making you go through that. Us frontliners should've done more to help the Support Players. You were the ones who kept our gear in good shape, and yet, we only paid you a tiny fraction of what we earned. It wasn't right."

Lisbeth was momentarily shocked to silence at his sudden apology. He really had nothing to apologize for, and yet he sounded so genuine that she couldn't help but believe him. Just who in the world was this guy?

"N-No, no, you don't have to apologize. Without you guys, we wouldn't have had any customers to begin with. Can't repair and sell weapons if no one is using them, after all," she reassured him, waving her hands in an apologetic manner. "Plus, we were hardly good businessmen back then. We constantly undercharged and asked for less than we should've."

"Still though... we shouldn't have taken advantage of you like we did. I apologize for that."

"Ahah, no really, it's all good... Getting back to the matter at hand, though; you said you came here to get your weapon repaired, right?"

Putting on an awkward smile, Lisbeth hurriedly tried switching topics in order to avoid further embarrassment. Despite the effects his weird, heartfelt apology had on her feelings, she didn't know how to properly respond to such a straightforward proclamation, and as such was eager to move the conversation into safer waters.

"Oh, yeah. I completely forgot about that. Here's my sword," he responded, pulling the slender piece of metal from its sheathe before handing it to her. Lisbeth's eyes immediately went wide as she took the sword in her hands.

"W-Wait a minute... this is... a **[Ethereal Blade]**!"

"Uhh... yes, it is. I take it you've seen one before then," the young man responded sheepishly, running a hand through his raven-black hair.

"Are you kidding me? Of course I have! Never in person, of course, but I've seen images of it in Agil's Great Guide to Aincradian Weapons!"

"In the whatnow?"

"Agil's Great Guide to Aincradian Weapons. It's a regularly updated compendium of all known weapons in SAO, made by a frontliner and merchant called Agil. It's one of the most popular Player-Made books in Aincrad," she answered, nodding her head as she spoke. "Basically every self-respecting Support Player owns a copy of it, especially Blacksmiths. It helps us keep track of the different weapons and stuff."

"Huh... Never heard of it," he shrugged with an apologetic smile.

"Seriously!? And you call yourself a member of the Assault Team?"

"Hey, it's not like I spend a lot of time perusing Player-Shops and reading! I'm busy enough as is!"

Shaking her head, Lisbeth directed her attention back to the weapon in her hands.

"Anyway, the **[Ethereal Blade]** is an incredibly rare drop only attained from the "Spectral Fiends" on the Seventh Floor. It's so rare I've never even seen one before, and I have all kinds of customers coming through here on a daily basis."

"Ahh... I guess I got lucky then. I don't really think too much about stuff like drop rates and rarity; I just equip whatever gives me the biggest attribute bonuses."

Raising an eyebrow, Lisbeth had to mentally restrain herself from sighing. Men could be so simple sometimes.

"Well, give me 2 minutes, and I'll have this baby all fixed up for you. Feel free to look at any of the other weapons I have for sale while you wait, though I doubt any of them will be particularly interesting to you," she said as she headed for the door leading in to the backroom. This was not going to take a lot of time. Repairing weapons was one of the simplest things a Blacksmith could do. All it required were a couple of standard crafting materials and some basic tools.

She returned with his weapon mere moments later, the metal glinting dully in the light of the chandelier. She had taken the liberty of polishing it a bit while she was at it, free of charge of course. It was the least she could do after being given the opportunity to handle such a rare drop.

"Alright, all done! Here you go! That'll be 1600 Col!" she stated as she gave him his sword back, watching with a smile on her face as he slashed it through the air a couple of times before returning it to its sheathe with a satisfying clack.

"1600 Col? That's kinda steep you know," he whistled, opening up his menu to send her a Trade Request.

"Given its rare nature, the weapon required a couple of uncommon materials in order to be fixed, driving up the price a little. And weren't you the one feeling all guilty about underpaying Support Players just a moment ago?" she responded with a giggle, gratefully accepting the trade before sending him a cheeky wink.

"W-Well... yeah..." he muttered, clearly not happy at having his own words used against him.

"Actually... before you go: I don't think I ever asked for your name," Lisbeth inquired, sensing that their time together was running out.

"Oh... no, you didn't. My name is Kirito. Nice to meet you, Lisbeth."

"Nice to meet you t... wait a minute, how did you know my name was Lisbeth?"

"Uhh... it's in the shop name," he responded with a smile, apparently finding her confusion somewhat amusing.

"A-Ahh... right, of course. I knew that," she murmured, her cheeks turning a nice shade of crimson. "I was just making sure!"

"Of course," he nodded, clearly not believing her convenient excuse. "Now then, if you'll excuse me... I have a party member to get back to. And she's not the type of person you want to leave waiting for long."

Raising a hand in goodbye, he started walking for the door, only to be interrupted by Lisbeth speaking up just moments later.

"B-Be sure to drop by again in the future! I'd love to get another regular around here, especially one as interesting as you!" she exclaimed, feeling surprisingly nervous all of a sudden. She didn't know why, but she really didn't want this to be the last time she saw this guy.

Kirito stopped in his tracks for just a moment, before uttering a short "alright!" in response and leaving the shop. Lisbeth waved after him as he left.

 _Huh... What a weird guy... I hope he drops by again sometime though. I think... I quite liked talking to him_.

She didn't want to think too heavily about what those uncommon feelings might mean, however.

* * *

**Floor 7 - Safe Zone outside Marina**

The female fencer Asuna Yuuki let out a sigh of irritation for the fifth time that evening as her eyes yet again darted over to the virtual clock resting in the upper right corner of her field of view. Just what in the world was taking him so long? He had reassured her he would only be gone for an hour, and yet, it had been almost one-and-a-half since he left now.

_Why did he insist on going to the Fourth Floor as well...? If all he wanted to do was repair his sword, he could've easily just dropped by any regular NPC Blacksmith here in Marina. There was no need for him to go all the way down there..._

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Asuna absentmindedly let her thoughts wander as she waited for her male counterpart to arrive. Things hadn't been going great for the Assault Team lately. First, there was the steadily growing tension between the ALS and the DKB, making life difficult for everyone on the frontlines. Second, there was the huge amount of casualties they had suffered in their fight against the Field Boss, " **Stella the Haunted Witch** ". Everyone was on edge because of it. The clearing process had slowed to a crawl, with the amount of frontliners willing to risk their lives in the Labyrinth shrinking by the day.

_If we keep going at this pace, we're never going to make it out of here. Someone has to do something. And because no one else seems willing to step up, it's up to us to pick up the pieces._

Looking out at the foggy forest stretching out in front of her, Asuna suppressed a shiver as she thought about all the Spectral-type monsters that were waiting for her out there. She really hated ghosts. In fact, she hated this entire Floor. It was easily the worst one they had been to thus far. Even being stuck on the First Floor for a month was better than this. At least that one had a nice city and some beautiful green hills. This right here was just grey, dark and dreary.

"Ahh, sorry to keep you waiting, Asuna!" a male voice suddenly said, causing her to turn around. A fierce scowl immediately fixed itself on her face as she noticed who it belonged to. Apparently, Kirito had finally decided to show up.

"Well, well, well, look who it is. Mr. Promises, back from the road. How was the weather down on the Fourth Floor?" she asked sarcastically, causing her party member to sigh.

"Hey, I'm sorry, okay? After finishing my first errand, I got caught up talking to this pink-haired female Blacksmith. Intriguing girl, she could scarcely believe I was a member of the Assault Team."

"Oh, okay... So while I was standing here in this depressing forest full of ghosts, you were having a good time chatting up other girls, is that it?"

"Uhhhhh..."

Asuna could see the panic starting to well up in his eyes clearly now, but she couldn't really bring herself to care. Standing here for the past 35 minutes waiting for him hadn't exactly done much to improve her already sour mood.

"I promise you, it wasn't like that! She was helping me repair my sword! She even polished it for me!" he argued, waving his hands in front of him.

"Oh wow, she even polished it? How nice of her! Which sword are we talking about again? The one on your back or the one in your pants?" she spat back, crossing her arms in a show of outrage.

"Okay, now you're just being difficult," he grumbled back, furrowing his eyebrows in consternation.

"Whatever. I don't care. Do what you want. But don't leave me waiting around for 30 minutes longer than planned next time, okay? I highly doubt you last that long with women anyway."

Asuna immediately regretted that last comment as soon as it had left her mouth. It was a tad bit too vile and childish, even for her. Shooting a quick look in Kirito's direction, she couldn't help but cringe as she noticed his reaction. He definitely hadn't appreciated that one.

She was being unfair, she knew as much. But for some reason, the thought of Kirito leaving her behind to hit up other girls made her so incredibly pissed off. It wasn't like the two of them were in any kind of relationship, but still... just the thought of him with someone else set her blood ablaze with fury. He was their treasured party leader, and her... her... well, she didn't really know what he was to her, but he was something.

Whilst Asuna had such thoughts running through her mind, Kirito was busy wondering just where the lovely version of this girl he had met on the Second Floor had gone. He would've quite liked to have that one back.

"Uhm... I'm sorry, Kirito-kun... That last one was a bit much," Asuna finally managed to say, forcing out the apology despite her foul mood.

"Yeah, no shit," he muttered in response, his face twisted into a grimace as he shook his head in exasperation. "That one kinda hurt. But I'll accept your apology. You're having a bad day, and I haven't done much to make it any better."

"I'm... I'm sorry..."

"No, it's okay. Let's just... focus on the matter at hand, shan't we? We were planning on going to the Labyrinth to check out some of the higher floors, so let's just go do that."

Grabbing her hand with a firm grip, he sent her a weak smile before turning to walk down the path that would take them to the entrance of the Labyrinth. Asuna's heart skipped a beat as she felt the sensation of his surprisingly warm hand envelop her own.

 _Just when in the world did I start feeling like this around Kirito-kun...?_ she thought to herself as she allowed him to drag her with him, following after him as he walked. _Was it... after that one night?_

Whatever it was, it was obvious she was starting to feel more and more comfortable around him. She had even started letting him see the sides of herself she usually kept hidden. Her bad temper and childish anger that would occasionally come forth when things didn't go her way. And somehow, he still managed to deal with her, even when she was in that mood.

_If nothing else... Kirito-kun is a man I will gladly follow._

Tightening her own grip on his hand, she allowed his presence to melt away the bad mood she had been in before he arrived, the jealous streak from earlier all but evaporating under the warmth of his skin against hers.

_I'm glad... he became our leader._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: From this point onwards, the story will slow down drastically in terms of update speed, seeing as we have now reached the end of my currently written content. This story mainly belongs on FFnet, so up until now, I've just been ripping chapters from the version that exists there and posting it here (to very middling success).
> 
> I'm not particularly fond of AO3 as a whole, to be honest. The user interface is archaic at best (to be fair, FFnet is not much better in this regard) and the site is HEAVILY biased in favor of smut and explicit writing. I have long suspected that the majority of the readers on this site is in fact female, and extremely horny females at that xD Smut fics seems to get a whole lot more attention than almost anything else, and, as you can probably imagine, that isn't exactly very motivating for someone who is not in fact interested in writing purely smut.
> 
> Now, don't get me wrong: I'll continue crossposting to this site. But for anyone looking for a more serious offering of fanfiction, I'd greatly recommend checking out FFnet instead, as the bar for quality appears to be significantly higher there than it is here. This site also lacks some of the most popular SAO fanfics ever written (like the absolutely fantastic story "Orange") and as such, is in my opinion to be viewed as inferior in terms of story quality and offering.


	12. The Christmas Event: Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

**Floor 7 – Boss Room**

Falling to my knees in exhaustion, I let out a sigh of relief as the sound of trumpets filled my ears. All around me, my wounded teammates were doing the same thing, their weapons clattering against the wooden floorboards of the Boss Room as they gulped down mouthfuls of air. This fight had been tough. Really fucking tough.

" **Jasper the Unfriendly Ghost** ", the Floor Boss of the Seventh Floor of Aincrad, had put up one hell of a fight, taking out 2 members of the Assault Team before finally biting the dust. His mechanics and attack patterns hadn't been overly complex, but his DPS had been absolutely ludicrous, easily outclassing all the other Floor Bosses by a wide margin. 3 Tanks had been required to successfully negate the damage of a SINGLE attack, meaning that kiting him around the arena had not been a viable strategy. And, seeing as we only had 9 Tanks participating in the Raid… well, continuous Switching had been an absolute necessity.

"Fuuuck meee…" Marco wheezed somewhere to my right. "These Floor Bosses are gonna be the death of me, mark my words…"

"Well, you're not wrong," Argo smiled in response, audibly stretching out her back. "You are very likely to die in a Floor Boss Raid."

"I… ehh… didn't mean that literally."

"Oh, I know! Just thought I'd back up your statement with some probability!"

"Uhh… thanks…?"

"You're welcome!"

"Either way," Asuna cut in, sheathing her rapier with a satisfying clink. "We should probably go talk to Lind and Kibaou. They look about ready to go at each other's throats."

Turning my head, I shot a quick glance in the general direction of the two Guild Leaders, letting out a sigh of frustration as I saw them shouting loudly at one another.

"Man, always something with those two, isn't it?" I muttered loudly, getting up on my feet with great exertion. Hot damn my body was tired. I would definitely need a really long bath after this to take the edge off.

"They're not exactly the best at getting along, no," Klein agreed, coming up behind me to put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You'll be alright on your own, Kirito?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got this," I waved, inwardly strengthening my resolve as I left my party behind to approach the two arguing Guild Leaders. For being two of the strongest players in the game, they sure could act childish.

"Inter-Guild cooperation proceeding smoothly as always, I see," I remarked sarcastically as I came to a halt in front of the two of them, causing their little shouting match to come to a premature end. Turning to stare at me, I couldn't help but shiver as I noticed the look of pure anger in their eyes. Something definitely wasn't right here.

"Oh shut yer trap, Kirito!" Kibaou spat in response, regarding me with poorly concealed hatred. "This ain't got nothin' to do with you and your little band of losers, so stay out of it!"

"Band of Losers, huh? That's not a bad Guild name, you know," I nodded, putting on a pondering look. "Has a better ring to it than "Aincrad Liberation Squad", at least."

"What was that?! You itchin' for a fight or something?" he fired back, cracking his knuckles loudly in a ridiculous attempt at intimidation.

"Well, not particularly, no. Buuut, if you really want to, I guess I could duel you. Then again, we both know who would win that duel, don't we?"

If looks could kill, I would've been long dead at this point. Thankfully, they couldn't, and as such, Kibaou was forced to shut his mouth and glare hatefully at me in silence, unwilling to back up his empty threats with action. We both knew I could easily wipe the floor with him in a 1v1, which was also the only reason I had the balls to talk to him in such a brazen way.

"Enough of your childish bickering!" Lind spoke up, his face contorting into an angry grimace as he spoke. "You should spare your breath, Kirito. Trash like him isn't worth conversing with!"

"Call me trash one more fuckin' time and I'll gut you like a fish, you knight-loving cocksucker!" Kibaou shouted back, pointing an accusing finger at the blue-haired Guild Leader.

"What was that?!"

"Alright guys, time to calm down," I interjected, raising my arms and walking in-between the two players. "You're making a scene."

For a moment, it looked as if the two rival Guild Leaders might jump me. Then, they finally backed down.

"I suppose you are correct…" Lind coughed, brushing away a stray lock of blue hair as he regained some of his composure.

"Right… Don't wanna be settin' a bad example for the guys…" Kibaou muttered, also cooling down a bit.

"Good, good…" I nodded to both of them, lowering my arms again. "We can talk to each other like civilized human beings now."

"I have always been capable of addressing my fellow man with respect and rationality," Lind countered, shaking his head. "Rabid dogs, on the other hand…"

"Hey! No more underhanded comments, okay? Jeez, what has gotten the two of you so riled up? We just beat a Floor Boss, for fucks sake!"

"This stinkin' pile of shit let two of my men die!" Kibaou sneered, staring daggers at Lind. "He knew they weren't clear of the Boss yet, but Switched out the Tanks regardless!"

"For the last time, I couldn't see them, you imbecile! They were hidden behind the enormous Floor Boss himself!" Lind fired back, returning Kibaou's stare with equal fervor.

"Hah, he's lyin' his ass off and he knows it!"

"I am not, you daft mongrel!"

"Oh, for the love of… just shut up already! Jesus, you two are worse than a pair of rivalling politicians," I remarked, throwing up my hands in exasperation. "It doesn't matter whose fault it is! Those two players are dead now, and nothing is ever going to change that! It's a tragic loss, yes, but what's done is done, and we need to look forward. Keep fighting, to make sure their sacrifice wasn't for nothing."

That seemed to give the two of them some pause, which I took as a small victory. Things would definitely have to change in the future. We couldn't continue on like this, with two of our most prominent players constantly at each other's throats. There needed to be a higher level of cooperation between us, so that we could ensure the continued survival of the Assault Team.

"Now, if you are all done fighting… Let's head up the staircase to the Ninth Floor. The people back in town are waiting for us, after all," I continued, receiving sharp nods in response. We were all tired of the constant gloom and doom of the Seventh Floor by now, and couldn't wait to have a change of scenery. Nothing could be worse than this ghost-ridden wasteland.

Turning around, I walked back over to my party again, glad to be done dealing with the two problematic Guild Leaders. As much as I hated confrontation, someone needed to keep those two from tearing into one another, and it seemed like I had been chosen as the man for that mission.

"You've gotten good at that, you know," Asuna remarked with a smile as I came wandering back over to them. "Defusing the tension between those two."

"Doesn't mean I like doing it," I answered, shaking my head. "It's like they can't help themselves! I swear, if it wasn't for us, the Assault Team would've crumbled ages ago…"

"Maybe," Klein nodded, regarding the two Guild Leaders with thinly veiled frustration. "I can't believe those guys are the same people who fought against Illfang back on the First Floor. Diavel was a better leader than I gave him credit for."

"Well, I never got to meet him, but he must've been an amazing negotiator if he managed to keep those two in line," I sighed, opening up my menu to check on the rewards I had gotten for taking part in the Raid. I hadn't been able to do so before now, so I eagerly scanned through my inventory in search of anything new. Sadly, there was nothing of interest there. Just a couple of rare crafting materials, which I could use to upgrade my weapons and armor.

"He was a great leader, and a good man. He didn't deserve to die the way he did," Asuna added, her voice strained by sadness.

"Hey…" Klein started, making his way to her side to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "There was nothing we could've done. He made his choice when he went for the Last Attack bonus without telling us."

"… Y-Yeah, I suppose you're right," she finally admitted, a weak smile fixing itself on her face as she leaned into his touch for just a moment. "I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Last Attack bonus back then."

"Exactly."

Watching them hug one another, I felt an uncharacteristic pang of jealously flare up in my chest. I knew they were just being friendly, but still… I couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of Klein for getting to hold Asuna like that. It was stupid, yes, especially considering the fact that I had actually gotten to share the same bed as her for a whole night, but it was my honest feelings, and not something I could control.

"Anyways, we should probably follow the others up to the Eighth Floor," Argo interjected, pointing towards the massive staircase at the back of the Boss Room. "I'm anxious to get out of this place once and for all!"

"Argo's right," I nodded, gazing over at the horde of players currently converging on the solid stone steps. "No reason to linger down here."

And with that, our little party ventured over to join the others.

* * *

After ascending the staircase to the Eighth Floor, we walked out of the newly opened stone doors, only to be met with a scenery that was best described as "winter wonderland". Snow covered practically every inch of the forested landscape, painting the world a blinding white. Different types of Christmas decorations hung from the trees, giving the whole Floor a very festive appearance that fit well with the current time of year.

The freezing cold temperature, however, stung against my bare skin, so I had to pull my leather coat tighter around me in order to protect myself from the chilling wind.

"Wow…" Asuna breathed, eyes wide with awe. "A Christmas-themed Floor… Just in time for Christmas!"

"It's honestly a little eerie," Klein muttered, staring out across the landscape with an unreadable expression on his face. "It's almost as if… as if **he** knew we would make it to this Floor just in time for the holidays…"

"Oh let up a little, will ya? Who cares what that man did or did not know? Let's just enjoy it for what it is: a very pleasant change of scenery!" Argo shrugged, giving Klein a playful slap on the back. "I can't wait to see what the main town looks like!"

"Ah! Do you think… it will be covered in Christmas decorations as well?!" Asuna damn near shouted, turning around to send Argo a stare so full of childlike excitement and glee it caused the feline girl to laugh.

"I'll bet ya 1,000 Cor it does!"

"Oh my god! We have to go there! Kirito-kun, come on, we gotta go there right now!"

"Yeah yeah, calm down," I smiled, shaking my head in amusement. Asuna really could be such a child sometimes.

"No time for that! Let's go right away! Follow me!" she stated with confidence before brushing right past me and starting on the road that would take us to the main town. Feeling slightly dumbfounded, it took me a moment to realize that she wasn't planning on slowing down, and so I scrambled to catch up with her. The others must've arrived at the same conclusion, as they quickly followed my lead and abandoned any further attempt at dialogue.

* * *

The main town of the Eighth Floor, fittingly named Bethel, was a quaint little place made up entirely of log cabins arranged in a round-ish formation. Five, stone-paved roads emerged in a star-shaped pattern from the Town Square, which had a cluster of ice sculptures scattered around the Teleport Gate in the middle. Each road was lined by various shops, inns and restaurants, all emitting warm light and bustling with activity. A large Christmas market had been erected to the north, filled to the brim with stalls and NPC's dressed in festive clothing, selling all manner of Christmas-themed equipment, refreshments, and treats. In addition, lights and decorations covered every building and rooftop, completing the image of a magical, festive paradise ready to be explored.

Needless to say, it was love at first sight for both Asuna and Argo. The two girls spent a solid 20 minutes fawning over every little aspect of the town, something I was actually grateful for, because it gave me the time to check out the bounty board and look for any interesting quests. As usual, there was a wide array to choose from, and I made a mental note of the ones that gave the most EXP and Cor before returning to my party. Despite its cozy and wonderful appearance, this was a new Floor after all, which meant new monsters, questlines and locations to explore.

After pulling Asuna and Argo away from the hustle and bustle of the Christmas market, we found our way to one of the many cafes, where we sat down and ordered some hot chocolate with gingerbread and marshmallows. Despite having travelled through seven distinct Floors at this point, I had never actually seen this type of hot chocolate being sold before, and so I had to assume it was a Rare item found only in this particular region.

Unsurprisingly enough, it tasted absolutely mind-blowingly good.

"Ahh… I'm so happy I've managed to survive long enough to experience this…" Asuna sighed happily from across the table, savoring the taste with her eyes closed. "I'm totally going to buy an apartment on this Floor."

"You said the same thing back on the Fourth Floor," I reminded her, earning myself a half-scowl before the content smile returned to take its place.

"Who says I can't have two apartments?"

"Your bank account," I replied with a cheeky grin. "Do you know how much an apartment costs?"

"They can't possibly be THAT expensive. As members of the Assault Team, we make a lot of Cor due to the boss battles and Labyrinth clearing," she responded, placing the mug in her hand down on the table before putting on a speculative look. "So I reckon I can at least afford one."

"You'd think so," Marco nodded. "But in the beta test, buying property on any of the higher Floors was basically impossible unless you farmed like crazy. Actually, I think a proper single-bedroom apartment on the First Floor was like 90,000 Cor or something."

"… Seriously?" Asuna asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "Is it really that expensive?"

"Oh yeah," I replied, crossing my arms. "It's even wilder on the Fourth Floor. A single-bedroom apartment with a view in Rovia is easily 180,000 Cor, if not more."

"Hmm…"

"You'd probably be able to buy one relatively quickly if you just saved up a little, but then again: do you really want to spend **all** of your Cor on an apartment when you're going to be spending 80% of your time on a different Floor regardless?"

"I'd look at it as an investment," Asuna shrugged, returning her attention to the hot chocolate in front of her. "Real estate is one of the safest investment opportunities there is, after all."

"Hah, in the real world maybe," Klein smirked. "But things don't work like that here in Aincrad. You can't sell properties to other players, only back to the system."

"What?"

"He's right," Argo nodded, scratching the underside of her chin with her index finger. "They designed it that way in order to avoid inflation and depreciation, I think. And, because the value of 1 Cor is based on a fixed drop rate maintained by the Cardinal System, it remains the same at all times, just like the developers intended."

"Really…?" Asuna muttered, looking slightly less optimistic than before.

"Yeah, really."

"Either way… I wouldn't worry too much about it," I chimed in. "You'll probably be able to buy your dream apartment somewhere down the line, just not in the immediate future. For now, I'd say we focus on getting to Floor 10 first. Then we'll at least be one-tenth done with the clearing process."

"Floor 10, huh…" Klein sighed. "It sounds good, but at the same time… we'll still have 90 Floors left to go through before…"

"Before we get out of here," I nodded, sending him a weak smile. "It might seem impossible now, but what else can we do? Sit around and wait, hoping that someone will come to our rescue?"

When nobody answered, I took it as a sign to continue speaking.

"Well, I think we all know that isn't very likely to happen at this point. We've been stuck in here for months now. If someone was going to save us, it would've happened a long time ago."

"Of course we know that, Kirito-kun…" Asuna mumbled, her eyes sad and downtrodden. "It's just… do you really think that… we'll all make it another 90 plus Floors? I mean, the chances of that…"

"Are slim at best, yes. But I know we can do it," I replied with certainty, locking eyes with her. "I'll make sure of it."

I didn't know where this unfamiliar strength and certainty came from, but I was happy I had it. Somehow, I had ended up as the unofficial leader of our little group, and so it was only natural that the others would look to me for guidance in times of trouble and hardship. And I wanted to be strong enough to carry that burden.

She stared at me for a couple of seconds before a slight smile broke out on her face.

"If you say so, Kirito-kun, then… I'll choose to believe in you."

"I'm with Asuna on this one. You're our leader for a reason, Kirito," Klein agreed, causing a fierce blush to flare up across my cheeks.

"Ehrm… Well, I appreciate that, you guys."

Just as I was about to change topics to something slightly less embarrassing, a flashing message icon appeared in my field of view, followed by the sound of a bell ringing. Furrowing my eyebrows, I stretched out my hand and tapped the icon, which caused a second window to pop up, displaying the message I had received.

* * *

_Kirito._

_Something has come up. I need you to meet with us at "The Jolly Goblin" in the southern district of town in 2 hours. Bring your party with you._

_\- Lind of the DKB_

* * *

"What's wrong, Kii-boy?" Argo asked, noticing the look on my face.

"Oh, uhm… I just got a message from Lind. He's asking us to meet up with him in two hours' time to discuss something," I replied, closing the window with a wave of my hand.

"Lind, you say…? Well, if the leader of the DKB is messaging you, it's probably not a good idea to ignore it," Marco nodded, an inquisitive look forming on his face as he spoke. "I highly doubt he'd contact you if it wasn't important."

"Yeah… I guess we better go see what he wants."

* * *

Precisely two hours later, our party walked through the doors of the inn known as "The Jolly Goblin", only to be ushered further in to one of its many rooms, where both Lind and Kibaou was waiting for us. For once, the two rival Guild Leaders did not seem to be engaged in some petty squabble or altercation when we arrived.

"Ahh, finally," Lind commented as we found our seats at the enormous table situated in the middle of the room. "You've arrived."

"Yes, we have," I replied, folding my hands on the table as I sat down. "Now, mind telling us what you called us out here for?"

"I will. But first, explanations are needed."

Gesturing towards Kibaou, Lind promptly shut his mouth and leaned back in his chair.

"Alright now... About three hours ago, my team and I discovered somethin' weird in the outskirts of town," Kibaou started, taking over for Lind in a surprisingly smooth transition. "Just south o' the town's Safe Zone, we found somethin' that looks an awful lot like a paintball field."

"A... paintball field?" I asked, eyes wide with surprise. "What on earth is a paintball field doing here in Aincrad?"

"I thought the same thing," Kibaou answered, shaking his head. "Can't see much of a reason for somethin' like that to exist here. There were no monsters spawning around or in it either, so it's obviously designed to be used by players."

"But... why?" Klein muttered, stroking his stubbly chin with one hand. "It's not like there's any paintball guns or equipment in this game..."

"Well, that's the weird thing. When we approached the field, a small little orb appeared right in front o' the entrance. Started saying all tons o' stuff, so we wrote it down."

"Really? What did it say?" I asked, clearly intrigued by this little mystery.

"It went a little somethin' like this: tomorrow, on December 23rd, there's apparently goin' to be some sort of annual event happenin' at the paintball field. Accordin' to the little orb, "snow launchers" are goin' to spawn in next to the field, which can be picked up by players and used inside o' the damn thing."

"An event...?"

"Yeah. It looks to be some kind o' tournament, where you enter with a premade party and fight against other parties to come out the winner. The rewards for winnin' are actually pretty decent as well. A fair bit o' Cor and EXP, combined with a Rare item that doesn't have a description."

"An item without a description?" Argo asked, eyebrows raised in surprise. Apparently, not even an Information Broker like her had heard of such a thing before.

"Yeah. The rewards go to the winnin' party, and there's no limit to how many parties can participate. How the hell that's gonna work, I have no idea."

"No limit? But... if it's a tournament-styled event, and there's only one field... that's gonna take ages!" I exclaimed, running the math in my head and coming up with nothing good.

"Exactly. My gut's tellin' me that there's probably some trick to it, but I guess we'll have to wait and see," Kibaou finished, running a hand through his spiky hair and leaning back in his chair.

"A snow-themed event on a Christmas-themed Floor one day before Christmas... No way this isn't intentional," I commented, turning to address my party members.

"I agree. We'll have to approach this with caution," Asuna nodded, trying her best to look serious and contemplative, but clearly struggling to hide the excitement she felt at the idea of participating in a Holiday-specific event.

"Ehh, I dunno..." Argo chimed in, a slight smile plastered on her face as she talked. "I highly doubt Kayaba would make something like this with the intention of hurting anyone. God knows the rest of the game does enough of that. No, personally, I think this is meant as some sort of gift."

"A gift?"

"Yeah. A way to give his players the chance to have some fun near the holidays, and win some decent rewards without risking their lives. During his speech on the day this whole thing started, he did say he created this world for the sole purpose of having players live in it, after all. And this is one way of making that seem a bit more fun, I suppose."

"Hmm... perhaps Argo's right," I nodded, starting to warm up to the idea. "Holiday events is a pretty common thing in MMOs, so the idea that SAO would also have them isn't completely baseless."

"Right you are, Kii-boy. It wouldn't surprise me if there's of them coming in the future, either."

"Well I suppose it can hardly hurt to participate then," Asuna stated with a wicked grin, her eyes twinkling at the idea.

"I guess... Tomorrow, we'll head to this so-called paintball field to sign up for the tournament!" I replied with confidence, sending my party members a warm smile as the competitive side of me woke to life with a roar. "Let's do our best to win this, you guys!"

"YEAH!"

And with that, the first annual Sword Art Online Christmas Event had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And there it is. The first part of a two-part holiday special, coming in hot on Christmas Eve as a present from me to you! Happy holidays, everyone!
> 
> No time for long A/N's today I'm afraid! It's Christmas after all! Go celebrate with your family and friends, and in the wise words of Michael Bublé: "Have a holly, jolly Christmas!"


	13. Nighttime Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.

** Floor 8 – "The Jolly Goblin" – Town of Bethel **

Asuna Yuuki couldn't sleep. Lord knows she had tried; twisting and turning in bed until she was certain she had cycled through every possible sleeping position known to man. And yet, no matter how much she wished for it, the sweet relief of darkness would not take her.

After an hour, she gave up. There was no point in trying anymore if her body and mind was hellbent on keeping her awake regardless. Letting out a deep sigh of frustration, she pushed herself up from the mattress, her chestnut-colored hair swaying lightly after her before settling around her shoulders.

 _I hate not being able to sleep_ , she thought to herself, a grimace marring her otherwise beautiful features. _It reminds me too much of the early days… When I spent every night crying._

Shaking her head, she forced the thought from her mind, not wanting to linger on such negative sentiments. She had cried enough for a lifetime already. From now on, she had to be strong.

 _I promised Kirito-kun as much, after all_.

The memory of their night together brought a smile to her face, and she found herself thinking about the black-haired swordsman once again. She didn't know precisely when it had happened, but for some reason, Kirito seemed to have taken up permanent residence in her mind. She thought about him constantly during the day, and saw him in her sleep during the night. It was getting to be rather annoying, actually.

_I wonder what he's doing…_

Opening up her menu, Asuna maneuvered her way over to the Friends tab, scrolling down the list of names until her eyes settled on the one she was looking for.

Kirito.

The Relationship System in SAO worked as such that it allowed you to see the precise location of your friends on the map, as long as you were both on the same Floor. Now, seeing as their entire party was currently renting rooms at the inn known as "The Jolly Goblin", Asuna half-expected to see his cursor overlapping with her own, as they usually did whenever two players were inside of the same building.

But to her great surprise… It didn't. Upon clicking on the "See Location" button next to his name, the system placed his cursor far off to the north on the map, way outside of the town Safe Zone.

_What? Why is he all the way out there?_

Furrowing her eyebrows, Asuna tried to think of a reason as to why Kirito would be out and about this late at night. Needless to say, her mind came up with nothing.

_I guess I better go see what he's up to. It's not like I'll be able to sleep either way…_

Switching over to her inventory, she made sure to equip ample clothing to protect her from the cold temperature, her body shining a bright shade of blue as a thick, winter coat materialized from thin air. On her head, a white knit cap appeared, covering her ears and pushing her hair against the sides of her face.

Satisfied, she got up from the bed and walked over to the door, making sure to lock it once she made it out into the hallway. There was nothing to steal or anything like that in her room, as she kept all of her possessions on her at all times, but the thought of someone sneaking in to ambush her once she came back made her extra cautious.

Walking out of the inn and into the streets of Bethel, she was surprised by how… peaceful… everything looked. The usual hustle and bustle of the Christmas market was all but gone, and the calm silence that now reigned was a welcome change from the thick crowds that normally dominated these streets during daytime.

The trip to the outer edges of the Safe Zone only took her a couple of minutes, and once she got there, she made sure to equip her rapier and normal armor underneath the winter coat, in case she happened upon any monsters or hostile players on the way. The fact that Player-Killing now offered rewards made traversing the wilderness that much more dangerous, and she couldn't afford to be caught off-guard by some would-be criminal looking for some easy EXP.

Walking with her menu open, she made sure to keep an eye on Kirito's precise location on the map as she made her way deeper into the woods surrounding Bethel, the light of the open system window casting long shadows across the ground. It wasn't as bad as the ghost-riddled landscape of Floor 7, but the silent woods around her struck an imposing figure nonetheless, causing her heart to beat faster in her chest.

_Why did you have to come all the way out here, Kirito-kun…?_

Luckily enough for her, however, she didn't have to walk for long before she spotted him, standing in a clearing further up ahead, sword in hand as he stared down two monsters she had never seen before. They vaguely resembled the snowmen she remembered making in her backyard during winter as a child, except that they had eyes as dark as the void itself, and a jagged set of sharp-looking teeth and claws.

Suddenly, one of the two monsters attacked, rushing towards Kirito in a desperate lunge. The black-haired swordsman easily side-stepped the attempted charge, and swung his sword horizontally, decapitating the snowman's head with ease. To Asuna's great horror, however, that wasn't the end of the fight, as the now headless body of the snowman simply turned around and attacked again, this time going in for a brutal swipe with his claws.

Kirito, having perhaps foreseen this, raised his longsword in response, blocking the claws with a loud twang before kicking the snowman with his right leg, causing the monster to shuffle backwards. Using the opportunity this afforded him, he finished it off with a flurry of strikes directed at its upper body, cutting it to pieces with a 4-hit combo Sword Skill that caused his blade to shine a deep shade of purple.

The young swordsman wasn't allowed to revel in this victory for long, however, as the second snowman quickly moved in to avenge his fallen comrade, eyes shining with fury. Swinging wide, it tried to catch him in the shoulder. Thankfully, Kirito was nimble, ducking underneath the oncoming limb with finesse and striking at the snowman's now exposed belly. His sword dug itself deep into its white body, causing the monster to howl in anguish.

 _Yes! Now finish it off, Kirito-kun!_ Asuna thought to herself as she watched him fight, impressed by his skill and calm composure. The slightly insecure young man had come a long way since they first met, and was now fighting with the same level of confidence one would normally expect to see from a battle-hardened warrior.

It didn't take him long to finish off his second opponent, his eyes darting to the rewards window that popped up as the death animation finished playing. But to Asuna's surprise, instead of looking happy or pleased with his victory, Kirito's facial expression remained hard as he noted the amount of Cor and EXP he had received for killing the two monsters.

"It's not good enough…" she heard him mutter to himself as he returned his sword to its sheathe. "At this rate… it'll never be enough…"

"Kirito-kun," she said, deciding to alert him to her presence before he started moving on to the next farming spot.

Kirito immediately spun around at the sound of her words, eyes burning with alarm as they locked onto her slender form. A moment of silence passed before his brain managed to register who she was, and subsequently lower his guard.

"Oh… Asuna," he sighed, releasing his grip on the handle of his sword. "It's just you."

"Excuse me?! Just me?" she answered with a pout, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she moved closer to him. "Would you rather have it be a PK'er?"

"Maybe. Depends on what mood you're in," he chuckled, visibly relaxing as the tense atmosphere deflated.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, sorry."

Stopping just a couple of meters away from him, Asuna fixed him with an inquisitive look before opening her mouth to speak.

"So, mind telling me what you're doing out here on your own this late?"

"Uhhh…" he started, scratching the underside of his chin with one hand. "Grinding?"

"Well, yes, I can see that," she responded with a deadpan expression on her face. "I meant; why are you out here grinding this late? We've got a tournament coming up tomorrow, you should be in bed."

"Mom?" he suddenly asked, eyes going wide with mock surprise. "I didn't know you were stuck in this game as well!"

"Ha ha, very funny," Asuna scoffed, her eyes narrowing. "No, seriously, why?"

"I couldn't sleep," he shrugged. "Figured I might as well make the best of it by heading out here to rack up some EXP."

"Oh did you now? And why, pray tell, didn't you notify any of us first? You know how dangerous it is to go at it alone!"

"I didn't wanna wake anyone up for something so trivial. And don't forget, I used to be a solo player before I met you guys on Floor 2. I know how to survive on my own."

"So that's it then? You think just because you're somewhat ahead of the curve, that grants you immunity against PK'ers?"

"Hey, I never said that! But I do believe I'd be able to stand up to anyone attempting to gank me, yes."

"You idiot…"

"What?"

"You massive, massive idiot!"

A look of complete bewilderment fixed itself on Kirito's face at her words, and he could do nothing but listen to her as she began lecturing him on the dangers of being a solo player.

"It doesn't matter if you're strong! What if you got ambushed by a group of them? They'd kill you in an instant! You're not strong enough to fight against three players on your own, you know!"

"A-Asuna…" he started, only to be interrupted before he managed to speak even a single word.

"You don't even know what's in this forest! We just got here from Floor 7, there's no way you could know what kind of monsters are lurking about, or how strong they are! You need to be more careful!"

"Asuna, listen to me…"

"No! You listen! I'm not just going to stand by and let you do reckless things on your own! You're our leader, and it's my duty to protect you! So the least you could do is warn us when you're heading out on your own!"

"ASUNA!"

The sudden exclamation caught her off-guard, and she was brought to silence by the anger in his voice.

"Listen here… I know you're worried about me," he started, walking closer to her until he was standing just a few feet away from her. "And I know this sudden lecture comes from a place of good intent. But you have to stop, okay?"

"Wh-what?"

"I came out here because I felt like I needed to. Because it's the only way for me to get strong enough to protect all of you."

"What do you mean… strong enough?"

"This isn't the first time I've done something like this, you know," he sighed, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Ever since Floor 4, I've been sneaking off every now and then to get some grinding done. I've even used one of my Skill Slots for the Hiding skill, and levelled it up in order to remain undetected whenever I do so."

"But… But… Why?" Asuna muttered, her hazel eyes locking onto his. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"Because… I need to get stronger," he replied with a grimace, tightening his grip on her shoulders. "In order to protect all of you."

"Protect… us?"

"Yes, protect you. Ever since we battled those PK'ers on Floor 4, I've been struggling to sleep at night. Sometimes, I wake up screaming, and I don't even know why. I think it's because I keep imagining what could potentially happen in the future if we were to fight another group of them like that. How I would feel if… if I got one of you killed."

A gasp escaped her lips at his words. Kirito had been walking around thinking about something like that all this time?

"W-Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered, placing a cold hand on his cheek. "I could've helped you! We could've gotten stronger together!"

"And we have been. We've gotten so, so strong, Asuna. And yet, I can't help but feel like it's not enough," he smiled, a hint of sadness coloring his voice as he talked. "As the leader of our little group, it's my responsibility to watch out for you guys. And I can't do that unless I get stronger."

"That's not true…" she muttered, shaking her head. "That's not true at all! It's not **just** your responsibility! We're all responsible for looking out for each other!"

A pained expression flashed across his face for just a moment before the sad smile returned to take its place.

"Maybe… but still… I can't help but feel this way. So please, Asuna… please… let me keep doing this. It's the one thing that makes me feel better. That makes me feel like… I can keep going."

His request was so honest, so brutally straightforward, that she couldn't help but tear up. She had never seen Kirito like this before, and it did all kinds of things to her already confused heart.

"I… I…" she stammered, clamoring for words that refused to come to her. "I… don't…"

"I'll take that as a yes then," he nodded, starting to remove the hands he kept at her shoulders. Just before he managed to do so, however, Asuna suddenly threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his torso and pulling him into a tight hug.

"A-Asuna?!"

"One condition…" she murmured with her forehead pushed up against his chest.

"What was that?"

"One condition!" Lifting her head, she locked eyes with him, silent tears streaking down the sides of her face. "I'll let you keep doing it on one condition!"

"A-And what's that?" he asked, cheeks burning with embarrassment.

"You… You let me sleep in the same room as you!"

Never had she seen a man look quite so confused in her entire life.

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me…" she nodded, wiping away the tears with a defiant expression on her face. "Let me sleep in the same room as you!"

"What… How…" he started, struggling to find the words he wanted to say. "How in the world did we get here!?"

"Oh, and you let me join you when you head out every now and again! Then I'll let you do it!"

"No, wait, that's TWO conditions…"

"Take it or leave it!" she affirmed, sending him a weak smile.

"Uhh… Ehh… Well… I guess… I'll accept…?"

"Good! Now let's go! You've done enough grinding for one night anyway!"

Letting go of his torso, she immediately spun around on her heels and started walking away from him, back towards the town of Bethel. A couple of seconds later, she heard him scurrying to catch up with her.

"Hey, no, wait up! You can't just walk away after something like that!"

"Well, come with me then!"

"Where are you even going?!"

"Back to the inn, of course," she responded, turning around to send him an innocent smile.

The look she got in return was nothing short of priceless.

* * *

**Floor 8 – "The Jolly Goblin" – Town of Bethel**

Asuna's room was cold and lifeless by the time we got back, but that didn't seem to bother her much as she opened the door and strode into its dark interior with clear determination.

Needless to say, I had absolutely no idea what was going through her head.

When I had left the safety of the town earlier that evening, I had never expected that something like this would happen. I had always known, of course, that my friends would find out about my nightly grinding sessions eventually. I was on their Friends Lists, after all. They could quite literally track my location whenever they wanted to, much like Asuna had done tonight.

But how something like **that** had transitioned into something like **this** , however, was a complete mystery to me.

"Uhm, Asuna…?" I started, my mind weighed down by confusion and apprehension. I had absolutely no clue what to say or do. The ball was well and truly in Asuna's court now.

"Yes, Kirito-kun?" she responded, turning around to look at me with an embarrassed smile on her face.

"Ahh, not to be disrespectful or… anything like that, but… What am I doing here?" I asked, trying my best to still my now rapidly beating heart.

"I already told you, didn't I? You're sleeping here with me tonight."

"Yeah, I got that part. The question is more along the lines of… why!"

"Because I want you to, obviously."

Walking closer to me, she placed a surprisingly loving hand on my cheek, which caused my entire thought process to shut down instantly.

"Ahhhhh…"

"I… I have something I need to tell you, Kirito-kun…" she started, her eyebrows furrowing in consternation. "I just… don't know how to say it…"

"A-And what would that be?" I stammered, swallowing hard in an attempt to get rid of the lump that had started forming in my throat.

"For these past few weeks, I've felt… weird… around you," she breathed, hazel eyes locking onto mine with bold intensity.

"O-Oh?"

"I don't know how to explain it, it's just… Whenever I'm with you, I feel… safe, in a way. I feel… protected, and… cared for."

"Well, that's… nice?" I tried as a violent blush erupted across my cheeks. "As the unofficial party leader, that's… very reassuring to hear!"

"You've been doing such a great job, you know. You shouldn't doubt yourself as much as you do," she smiled, the moonlight streaming in through the window illuminating her features and making her look like some kind of goddess.

_She's so beautiful…_

"Ahh, r-really now?" I continued, a cold sweat breaking out across my back. "You think so?"

"I don't just "think so", Kirito-kun, I **know** so," she giggled, leaning even closer to me than before. My heart skipped a beat as I felt more of her slender body push up against mine.

"I-I… Ehh…"

"Kirito-kun…"

"Y-Yes?"

"I… I think…"

Her captivating eyes bore into me, taking my breath away in one fell swoop. I had always known that Asuna was a beautiful girl, but tonight… she looked positively **radiant**.

"W-What?"

"I think… _I may have feelings for you_ … and I don't know what to do about it."

And there it was. The confession that would forever haunt my memories from that day forward. An admission of fledgling love. Something so pure, so innocent, so out of place in a world like this that it was all I could do to keep the tears from forming in my eyes.

A million thoughts raced through my mind, but they were all irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was Asuna. Her beautiful, hazel eyes. Her dazzling, chestnut-colored hair. The cute smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

I burned it all into my memory, every curve and every contrast. I wanted to remember this moment until the day I died.

"A-Asuna…" I muttered, my words coming out as nothing but a faint whisper.

"Yes?" she whispered back, her face inching ever so slowly towards mine.

"I… I really want to kiss you right now," I breathed, my body practically moving on its own as I snaked my arms around her back.

"Funny, that…" she smiled. "I was thinking the exact same thing..."

And then… there was nothing separating us anymore. We both closed our eyes as our lips met in a chaste kiss, so light and fleeting it caused my heart to flutter.

There was a lot of uncertainty to it, of course. Neither of us knew where our relationship would go now that we had crossed this fundamental barrier. But despite all of this confusion, I knew one thing for certain.

This was right. What we were doing right now was right. The feeling it evoked in me… **was right**.

And for the first time in months, I thought to myself that… maybe getting stuck in this death game wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to me, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it. The KiriSuna ship has officially left port, and it only took like, roughly 60k words lol.
> 
> I apologize if this chapter felt a bit shorter than previous ones. I try to maintain a 4000-5000 word per chapter quota, but this one clocked in at just over 3500, making it significantly shorter than usual. I tried making it a bit longer by adding an extra story scene, but it honestly just... didn't feel natural lol. The kiss felt like the perfect place to end the chapter, so I ultimately ended up making the executive decision to keep it that way, even if the result was a shorter chapter. I hope you can forgive me for this, and perhaps even see why I felt it was necessary.
> 
> Either way, massive thanks go out to Tigercry for Beta-Reading and providing feedback on this chapter. She truly is a miracle worker! Oh, and if you're a fan of SAO romance, this girl has got you covered. I highly encourage you all to check out her stuff if you feel so inclined.
> 
> The next chapter will be the long-awaited "Christmas Event - Part 2", so stay tuned for that.


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